


Consequences

by whatarubberchicken



Series: Issues [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mentions of Character Death, Written before Season 2, akuma battles, but we're pretty much ignoring everything that happened post-volpina, canon exists to give me little details, issues series, new powers, past holders, slight PTSD, takes place before season 2, violent dreams, we explore a bit more into how it feels to be akumatized
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-01-25 00:30:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21347320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatarubberchicken/pseuds/whatarubberchicken
Summary: The sequel to Issues! Between growing new powers, family secrets, new and old Miraculous users, and more drama than you can shake Cat's extendable baton at--defeating Hawkmoth may have been the easy part! We've got violence, angst, romance, and more really bad jokes! Oh, how will we survive the jokes...?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Issues [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1190572
Comments: 44
Kudos: 76





	1. Consequences… of Defeating Your Enemy

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the continuance of Issues! (Finally!) If you haven’t read that one yet, this story will not make a lot of sense to you, so you should probably go back and read it first. 
> 
> Sorry, sorry, SORRY for the extreme delay in this! Yes, I started writing it before season 2 came out--which doesn't really say a lot about my updating schedule... but we're going to try to finish this!

Ladybug woke up to find herself sprawled on a cold, hard floor, clutching something warm with all her might. To her relief, he seemed to be clutching her back. She wrapped herself around him tighter, sighing in bliss when he tangled his hand in her hair.

_Wait, HE??? His WHAT??_

She pulled away and opened her eyes—sure enough, Adrien’s slowly-waking face greeted hers as he blinked at her. She squeaked, completely mortified to be waking up in this position. Next to _Adrien_. _Holding_ Adrien! And he was—well, he had been—holding her back! Now, he was just giving her those slow, lazy blinks that some people called kitten kisses…. _OMG, he was so cute!_ And his gorgeous eyes were _just so_—

“Green!” she cried joyfully, diving forward to tackle him and hug him tightly.

“Oof!” Adrien gasped out. “Ladybug, kitty can’t breathe!” She giggled before releasing her grip (a bit).

“Sorry,” she said.

“It’s okay,” he said, as he quickly hugged her back. “I like hugs. But why…?”

“Your eyes are green again,” she said grinning.

“Ahh,” he said, with a soft chuckle. “You saved me again, My Lady Prince.”

“We saved each other, Damsel Kitty,” she corrected, finally letting him go before sitting up and looking around the room. Had they been akumatized? Had they already been defeated by some other hero? How long had they been out??

The room seemed lighter somehow, even if it was still dark outside.

Warmer, even if the floor was still cold.

Better yet, there were no akumas (white or black) around that she could see. But there were also no other heroes that could’ve defeated them, if they’d been turned into villains… and the body of Gabriel Agreste lay just a few feet away. She turned away quickly. They must not have been unconscious long at all. Beside her, Adrien sat up as well, rubbing his head and yawning.

“What happened?” he asked. He started to look around, but she grabbed his shoulders and turned him so he couldn’t see.

“We should go,” she said quietly, pulling him to his feet. Unfortunately, she was dealing with the person who knew her best. Comprehension dawned in his eyes as he recalled what had just happened. And what she was trying to lead him away from. He took a deep breath and gently drew away from her.

“I need to see him,” Adrien said. Ladybug winced as he turned towards his father, but she let him go. This was his decision. She couldn’t make it for him. She wouldn’t be like the man on the ground, making him live his life in cage. But _living_ meant accepting the good _and_ the bad. All she could do was be there for him afterwards.

“Father?” Adrien called softly.

“We already talked about this, kid,” drawled a familiar voice. Adrien raised an eyebrow and hurried over to the body to see his kwami struggling to push the Moth Brooch back together and take it off Hawkmoth’s collar at the same time. The tiny black cat still looked totally exhausted from everything else that had happened.

“You don’t really ‘respond’ after being hit by a Cataclysm,” Plagg said dryly.

“What are you doing?” Adrien asked, pointedly not looking at his father’s face.

“Repaying a debt,” Plagg said, finally succeeding in pushing the two pieces of the brooch together. There was a purple flash, and suddenly, another kwami (this one light purple) was lying unconscious on the ground beside them. “Ah, there you are!” Plagg said with satisfaction. “I knew you were tougher than you looked, you little fairy!”

“Nooroo!” Adrien exclaimed, kneeling and taking off his jacket to wrap the two kwamis in. Ladybug gave a surprised cry as well, and she hurried over to join them as Plagg shot his wielder a grateful look and burrowed into the fabric, making a little nest for the other kwami. Then the tiny black cat curled up beside his friend.

“Is he all right?” Ladybug asked nervously, her hands hovering above Nooroo but unwilling to disturb him. Plagg gave her a wry grin.

“He will be, thanks to you,” he snickered.

“Me?” she repeated, confused. “What’d I do?”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “You humans and your _emotions_,” he said with disgust. “It’s enough to make me sick sometimes.”

“Plagg…,” Adrien warned.

“But I can’t deny, it gets the job done,” the black kwami quickly added. He snickered again. “True love’s kiss. The Cosmic-Reset Button. Yay. Congratulations, girlie. You just harnessed the power of creation.”

“I, what?” Ladybug yelped.

“You brought Nooroo back to life,” Plagg said, contentedly snuggling in his master’s jacket and using his tail to point at the purple kwami beside him, “healed us all, saved us all from possession, _and_ managed to power-blast a hundred-odd akumas at the same time. All without even knowing what you were doing,” he chuckled, opening an eye to smirk at her. “It’s some party trick, but I’m not gonna envy you the headache you’ll have tomorrow. So, let’s do this now.”

He took a deep breath and yawned. “You wanna save Adrien’s dad? You can. Maybe.”

“What??” Adrien yelped.

“I can?” Ladybug’s eyes widened.

“_Maybe_,” Plagg emphasized. “If you can focus that power of yours enough. But it’s gonna be tricky, especially if you don’t want Hawkmoth suddenly back in the room at full power.” Adrien cringed at the thought and Ladybug shuddered. Nope. No, definitely not. One epic battle with that man had been enough, thank you very much.

“So, you’re gonna have to concentrate,” Plagg said. He glanced at Adrien. “You, kid, were focused on defeating the man who called himself Hawkmoth when you used that Cataclysm. So, _she’s_ gonna have to focus on saving the man who calls himself Gabriel Agreste. Not Hawkmoth. Get it?”

“No,” Adrien said. “They’re the same person, aren’t they?”

Plagg sighed. “Only kinda. It’s—”

“You mean, like a persona?” Ladybug asked quietly. Plagg’s eyes lit up.

“Exactly!” he grinned at Adrien. “Keep this one around, slow poke. You’re gonna need her.” Adrien rolled his eyes at his kwami, but he couldn’t help smiling. _He intended to._

“So,” Plagg continued, turning back to Ladybug. “You need to focus on saving the part of Gabriel Agreste that is Adrien’s father. Then call on the Lucky Charm while you’re focused. It should help you get him, and just him and not Hawkmoth, back to life.”

Ladybug took a moment to process that information and nodded, taking a deep breath. She looked at her yo-yo uncertainly. “It’s really that simple?” she asked.

“It’s a miracle, girlie,” Plagg grinned at her cheekily. “They usually work best when they’re small and simple.” He used his tail to point at himself. “And it helps if they’re super cute, too.”

Ladybug let out a laugh, but Adrien raised an eyebrow at his kwami. “Are you flirting with my girlfriend, Plagg?” he asked with a smirk. Ladybug sputtered and turned bright red, but neither of them acknowledged her as they stared each other down.

“Someone has to give her some other options besides _your_ pale butt,” Plagg said cheekily.

“Hey!”

“Oh my God, enough, you two! I need to concentrate!” Ladybug cried. “And I can’t do that while thinking about Adrien’s butt!! —Shut up and stop grinning, you!” She growled at Adrien, who was trying, and failing, to stop. “And you!” she said, glaring at Plagg. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?!”

“Yup,” he said, unrepentant. “Trying to break the tension. Of course, I can also increase it. Maybe I should remind you what might happen if you fail?” That wiped the smiles off both their faces. He looked at Adrien archly. “Or maybe I could ask _you_ if you even want her to try?”

“Plagg!” Adrien said, scandalized.

“What? He was a jerk.”

“Plagg,” Adrien growled. “That’s rude.”

“It’s rude to speak ill of the dead,” Plagg agreed. “But if you wanna remember him fondly, you’d better just leave him there. Cause if he comes back to life, you’re gonna have to deal with him again. Just fair warning. He’s not getting Nooroo back, but he’s still gonna want the ring.”

Ladybug put her hand on Adrien’s shoulder as he hung his head. “We can deal with that if the time comes,” she said firmly. “Your father wasn’t the first person to want a Miraculous, and he won’t be the last. Don’t let it influence you. But if you really don’t want me to do this….”

“That’s just it. I do,” Adrien admitted, taking a deep breath and looking at the man on the floor. “Even after all of this, he was still my father. Even if… what I had… was just the _thought_ of what a father should be. I don’t want to give up on the chance that he could be that, someday.”

Ladybug nodded. “Well, then, let’s give you… hope!” she threw her yo-yo into the air, focusing her thoughts on the father that Adrien loved. The man that had to be in there somewhere, to love his family so much he wanted to keep them safe from _everything_….

“_Lucky Charm_!”

She blinked at the object that fell heavily into her hands. “Huh. Well, that’s straightforward for once,” she said. She knelt beside Hawkmoth’s fallen form and opened the red-with-black-spots defibrillator.

“Do you know how to use one of those?” Adrien asked.

“Sorta?” Ladybug said, rolling Hawkmoth over to lay flat on his back. “I took a first-aid class last year, and the teacher gave us a demonstration. Guess we’ll see how much I remember.”

“Can I help?” Adrien asked.

“I need his chest bare,” she said absently, lifting up a part of his now-grey outfit. To her surprise, it crumbled to dust in her hands. Adrien cringed, looking away. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” she assured him quickly. “It’s just the shirt. Look, see, he’s solid underneath.” She patted Hawkmoth’s chest and tried not to grimace at the unnaturally-greyish tones his skin still had underneath his decaying clothes.

“Adrien, why don’t you move the kwamis away a bit? I don’t want them to be in the way,” she said, hoping to distract him. Adrien hurried to do that as she finished setting up the machine and attaching all the necessary parts to the still-unresponsive man. She looked up at him when he returned. “Do you know CPR?” she asked. He shook his head.

“Shock recommended. Stand clear,” the defibrillator’s machine voice said.

“Ok, then, stand back. Here we go.” She took a deep breath. “Clear,” and pushed the button. They waited for a moment, barely hearing the faint buzzing.

“Begin compressions,” the defibrillator’s computer voice said. Ladybug set her mouth in determination and began.

“You know… I really… wish… the rest of… my lucky… charms… could be… this… upfront,” she said though the compressions. “I mean… seriously… with Copycat… a spoon…? I was… totally lost…. Kept thinking… about the… nursery… rhyme… and looking… for a… dish!” Beside her, Adrien laughed softly.

The machine analyzed their patient again and administered another shock.

“Adrien, try to talk to him,” Ladybug said, beginning compressions again. “Maybe you can… get through to him. I have a feeling… this is going to be… more magic… than science.”

Adrien licked his lips nervously. “Hey, father,” he called softly, “I don’t know if you can hear me, or if you even care, but… I really would like for us to be a family again. I know,” he ducked his head, avoiding looking at Ladybug, as she avoided looking at him too, “I know after Mom disappeared, things got a little tense between us. But I want us to try to work it out.

“I don’t… I don’t blame you for what you did,” he continued, shifting uneasily and unable to look at Ladybug. “I tried to lose myself in the magic too, thinking it would make everything better. And it did, I guess. It helped to know I was making a difference. That I was doing _something_, you know? But I… I think we lost sight of each other, somewhere in there. Heh, Mom would probably have both our heads if she—”

Gabriel Agreste gave a sudden gasp and started coughing. Ladybug quickly stopped her CPR and moved him into the recovery position.

“Father?” Adrien said hopefully.

“Adrien,” his father wheezed, and then fell silent and limp again. Ladybug checked his pulse.

“Shock not recommended,” the defibrillator’s voice said helpfully.

“Well, he’s breathing,” Ladybug said. “We should probably call the police for an ambulance, unless…?” She held up the defibrillator.

Adrien shrugged. “Worth a shot, right?” Ladybug shrugged too. She had no idea what was going to happen anymore.

_Please don’t bring back Hawkmoth. Please don’t bring back Hawkmoth. Just let Adrien’s father be normal again_, she prayed as she gathered the equipment together and threw it high.

“_Miraculous Ladybug_!” she cried.

To her surprise, the ladybug swarm only lingered over Gabriel Agreste’s form long enough to change his clothes back to his regular wear before swarming out the window to disperse all over Paris. Ladybug looked down at her former foe and grimaced. _Ok, so maybe she should’ve asked it to actually bring him back all the way…._

“The Moth Brooch is gone!” Adrien yelped, looking all over the ground for the Miraculous. “Plagg, is Nooroo…?”

“We’re okay,” the kwami confirmed. “Don’t worry about the Brooch. Nooroo hasn’t disappeared, and he’s breathing easier. But most of the damage done is gonna take time. And sleep. And lots and lots of camembert.”

Adrien laughed in delight. “Father?” he called hopefully.

Gabriel Agreste remained motionless. Ladybug checked his pulse again, just to be sure. “Still breathing,” she confirmed. Adrien frowned.

“So why—?”

“I just told you, kid_: time_,” Plagg grumbled. “He’s probably exhausted. Like I said before, you don’t usually come back after a direct hit from a Cataclysm. You’ll be lucky if he’s just in a coma for a while. It depends on how hard he wants to cling to the part of him that was ‘Hawkmoth.’” Adrien slumped down in disappointment.

“Hey, at least he has a chance now,” Ladybug said, putting her hand on his shoulder. “But we should probably call the police. What do you want to tell them?”

“I don’t know,” Adrien muttered as tears of frustration began to well up in his eyes. They couldn’t tell everyone Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth. That was basically asking for an “accident” to happen in the hospital. The Miraculous Cure set things right, but it didn’t destroy all the memories. Plenty of people had a bone to pick with the ex-villain. He looked at Ladybug as weariness started to settle in. “You should probably be de-transformed when they get here, though. Technically, Marinette’s been kidnapped all day long.”

Ladybug bit her lip and nodded, pretending not to see him wipe away his tears. This had been an epically long day.

Finally, they decided on a story and called. When the police got there, they found two bedraggled, exhausted teenagers (no kwamis in sight!), huddled around an unconscious man, whom the police immediately called med-evac for. The teenagers told them about how the girl had been seen in the company of Cat Noir, which had caught the attention of Hawkmoth. The villain had then akumatized Gabriel Agreste, promising to bring back his lost wife if he brought the girl to him. So, the girl had been kidnapped. The boy, apparently the man’s son, had been so worried about his friend that he had gone to his father to ask for his help in looking for her, only to be caught up in the akuma’s scheming as well, and they’d all been taken to Hawkmoth. (No, the poor teenagers couldn’t identify Hawkmoth. He had a magical mask, like Ladybug and Cat Noir.)

Ladybug and Cat Noir had shown up to save the day, of course, but by then, Gabriel Agreste’s akuma had already realized it was being double-crossed, he would never see his wife again, and that he was putting his son in danger. Gabriel had switched sides to help the heroes, and Hawkmoth had done something to the man before fleeing into the night with Ladybug and Cat Noir hot on his heels. The teens didn’t know what had happened to Hawkmoth or Paris’s heroes after that, but they were worried about the boy’s father, since Ladybug’s Miraculous Cure had apparently not completely worked on whatever Hawkmoth had done to him.

It was an easy story to concoct, half-true anyway, and the police bought it completely. In their defense, there had been stranger things going on tonight. Apparently, monsters and little black butterflies had been seen all over Paris, only to disappear in a blinding flash of pink light. No one could explain it. And right now, both Ladybug and Cat Noir were too exhausted to even think about trying to disappear long enough to make sense of it all. (Not that they could tell anybody that.)

Marinette and Adrien were both sent to the hospital with Mr. Agreste, where they were able to call their families. Natalie was soon on her way and Marinette’s parents sobbed with relief when they heard her voice on the phone (though thankfully they didn’t say anything about what had happened). Marinette was relieved too. If they were able to talk to her normally, that meant Hawkmoth hadn’t managed to akumatize them in the madness of that last battle.

It was finally a bit easier to breathe.

“I suddenly feel helpless,” Adrien said, as they finally sat side-by-side in the lobby of the hospital. “Like, I’ve been doing hero work all day; running around and fighting bad guys, and now, I’m just a kid waiting for a ride home.”

“Mm hmm, it’s strange,” Marinette agreed, resting her head on his shoulder. She was pretty sure they were just talking to keep themselves awake after everything they’d been through.

Adrien sighed. “You’ll take care of him?” he asked, indicating the slightly-larger-than-normal bulge under her shirt where two kwamis instead of one were hiding. “It won’t be too much trouble?” He didn’t want to take Nooroo home with him, just in case the kwami had some really bad memories of the place.

“He’ll be fine, Adrien,” Marinette said, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. “They’ll all be fine. _We’ll_ be fine.” Adrien hummed in worry, but finally allowed himself a deep breath as he relaxed against her.

* * *

When Natalie showed up a few minutes later, she found them both asleep, leaning against each other with their fingers entwined. She directed the Gorilla to stand guard, but not to wake them as she went to confirm her boss’s medical status and assume legal guardianship of his son. By the time she got back, Marinette’s parents had arrived and were quietly cooing at the sleeping couple, and taking a couple discreet photos. Natalie shot the Gorilla a look, but allowed it. No doubt, if her boss ever woke up from that coma, he’d want some copies. He’d seemed interested in Miss Dupain-Cheng, after all.

Then came the hard part, actually waking and separating the two. Natalie tried calling Adrien’s name, but he just pressed closer to the girl (whose parents were no help; they were just standing there with the biggest smiles on their faces). The Gorilla gave him a little shake, one that had never failed to get his attention when he was dozing off during a photoshoot, but Adrien actually let out a growl and swiped at him, the boy’s own movement causing his head to fall into the girl’s lap. But even _that_ didn’t wake him, he just snuggled closer, wrapping his arms around her. Natalie nearly choked at their new position, and Marinette’s parents burst out laughing.

“Please, no photos of that posi—” Natalie started, but was cut off when a light from the ceiling suddenly fell down, right on the Gorilla’s head. She gaped as he was instantly swarmed by medical personnel (thank God, they were in a hospital).

_Where had that even come from??_ She stared at the light fixture. _It seemed perfectly fine and stable. No reason for it to fall… Was it really just bad luck?_

“Miss Natalie,” Marinette’s mother said softly, looking at the two teenagers worriedly. “If that gentleman is okay, you might want to get Adrien home as soon as possible. I’ll call tomorrow morning. They’ll want to see each other again first thing, and I know someone whom Adrien might want to meet.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Cheng, but I can’t allow any outside influences on Mr. Agreste’s son. Rest assured, he will get the licensed help he needs—”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Mrs. Cheng said quickly. “Just a family friend. Adrien expressed an interest in his… line of work earlier.”

Natalie raised an eyebrow. The woman was sweet, but she was a terrible liar. And Mr. Agreste would kill her if Adrien went to some sort of psychologist without his express permission. No, she couldn’t allow any of this. She probably couldn’t even allow Adrien to see the girl again until his father woke up.

“We’ll discuss it later,” she said sharply, seeing the Gorilla come back with a bandage on his head. “Are you able to drive?” she asked him. He shook his head. She sighed. More and more work.

“Adrien!” she called loudly. He jerked awake with a groan. Marinette also woke up, looking just as sleepy.

“Just five more minutes,” Adrien mumbled.

“It’s time to go _now_,” Natalie told him, using her no-nonsense voice. He groaned, slowing getting off his friend. They both jumped apart and blushed deeply when they realized just what kind of position they’d been caught in.

“I-uh, I’ll see you later,” he said shyly. Marinette nodded and waved. Natalie didn’t have the heart to tell them otherwise. She’d still allow Adrien to call the girl on the phone, of course, but other than that, their contact was going to have to be limited for now. Adrien meekly followed his father’s assistant out the door, doing a double-take when he saw the Gorilla waiting by the car with bandages around his head.

“What happened?” he asked, startled. “Didn’t Ladybug’s Cure—”

“Freak accident just before you woke up,” Natalie explained as they got in the car. Adrien’s eyes widened, and for some reason, he fiddled with his ring. “No need to worry. Ladybug’s Miraculous Cure did indeed fix all the damage done to your room, though the two perpetrators have not yet been caught. We’ll be upping security tonight, so no sleeping with your window open.”

Adrien snorted. “Like that’s gonna help against _magic_,” he muttered. Natalie had to give him that.

“Adrien, I realize I’m not your father, but I will do the best I can to keep you safe,” she promised. His smile softened.

“I know, Natalie,” he said. Then he bit his lip. “Any word on when my father…?”

“Not yet,” she looked at him through the rear-view mirror. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

Adrien closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Not yet.” Natalie just nodded. He was probably still in shock. They were all quiet as they drove back to the house. Adrien did pause once he got to his room though.

“If I wasn’t so tired, I’d insist on sleeping somewhere else tonight,” he said, eyeing his door distrustfully.

“Try to get some rest,” Natalie advised him. “Tomorrow… will be a big day.”

“First day of the rest of my life,” Adrien snorted, his hand already on the doorknob. Natalie waited until she heard him flop onto his bed before she left.

_If only he knew. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My own experiences with a defibrillator are from first aid classes’ demonstrations only. Please, please, please don’t take this chapter as a step-by-step on how to use one! I skipped a lot of steps and only have my shoddy memory to go on (and really, they should’ve called the ambulance first, but, secret identities…). I only included as much as I did to emphasize just how much power the Cataclysm has; and how much work they’re going to have to put in to fix everything. Cat doesn’t get enough credit for his restraint sometimes. People like to focus on Ladybug’s insta-fix.
> 
> Also, get it? In order to bring Gabriel back—they had to restart his frozen, dead heart. Hyuck, hyuck. Yeah, it was funnier in my head. But I promised you bad puns. You may commence throwing rotten vegetables.


	2. Consequences… of Nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: There’s some things that happen in this chapter that might be a bit triggering for some people. Nothing too bad; I tried to leave out the worst of it, but yeah, that Y-7 rating from the show is not here anymore. In my defense, if anyone was hit by a dozen-odd mind-altering bugs and forced to kill a family member (no matter how evil or twisted they might be), and they showed up all happy-go-lucky the next day, they might just be a psychopath. Adrien is NOT a psychopath, which is why he now has to deal with… consequences. 
> 
> If you guys don’t like darker fics or where this is going, I won’t say anything if you stop reading and just say,   
“they defeated Hawkmoth and lived happily ever after, the end.”   
‘Cause, yeah. That’s, uh… totally what’s gonna happen in this fic. *whistles innocently*

_He was out on all fours, racing through the darkened streets. The wind sang in his ear as the thrill of the hunt rushed through his veins. Ahead of him, a desperate wail reached his ears, making him grin. His prey knew it was no match for him. _

_His speed. _

_His strength. _

_His **power**._

_A metal pole, a pitiful little makeshift weapon, swung at him inelegantly. He swatted it away and hissed. To any normal human, it might’ve been a danger. To him, it was simply an annoyance. Not even worth taking out his own baton to duel with. Sure enough, it went clattering to the ground with one hit. Its wielder let out a cry as its last, pathetic defense was breached. It turned to run, only to stumble and fall to the ground._

_He licked his lips. Finally. His favorite part._

_“N-N-No-nononoo, please don’t hurt me!” his prey screamed, holding out its hands as if it could hold off the predator in front of it. He snickered, preparing to spring._

_A high, thin laugh stopped him in his tracks and he grinned again, relaxing as his partner took her rightful place by his side. Delight flooded him as he saw his prey go white at the sight of Her. _Oh yes, isn’t she marvelous?_ Power and poise personified into one magnificent package. A thrill went down his spine as she laughed again. There was no hope left for his prey._

_“I see you’ve met my Cat,” she said archly, running her fingers through her beloved’s hair. He leaned into her touch until he felt her nails dig painfully into his scalp. He didn’t dare hiss at Her, so he turned his displeasure to the prey in front of him. It was shaking now, poor thing. Probably couldn’t run anymore. This would be easy. He flexed his claws._

_“No, please! PLEASE!!”_

_“**Take him**.”_

_He sprang forward._

Adrien woke up with a yell, drenched in cold sweat and bile already rising in his throat. He dove off the bed, so tangled in his sheets that he fell to the floor instead of making it to his bathroom on time. It didn’t matter. His stomach rebelled completely, emptying its contents right there on the floor. Somewhere in between heaves, Plagg managed to bring him a wastebasket. He took it gratefully, shaking in-between bouts of nausea.

“I won’t even bother asking if you’re okay,” Plagg said, as Adrien finally wiped his mouth. “Since you’re obviously not. I’ll just remind you that you’ve got a hot shower and a bottle of mouthwash right over there that you should probably make use of. It’ll help.”

“Thanks, Plagg,” Adrien said shakily, getting up to clean his mess. Dumb luck (or Plagg) had somehow managed to keep all his bedding away from the splash zone; all it took to clean up was an absurd number of towels that went right into the wastebasket. Then he took Plagg’s advice and stripped out of his sweaty clothes and into the hot shower. It did wonders to calm him.

Right up until he swore that the hot liquid running down his hands was blood.

He quickly turned off the shower and leaned against the wall for a moment to steady his breathing.

He toweled himself dry and then made liberal use of the mouthwash, trying to ignore his shaking hands as he did. Plagg, ignoring their usual “no kwamis in the bathroom” rule, floated down to sit on the counter next to him. Adrien was grateful for the company.

“Bad?” Plagg asked. Adrien nodded.

“Please tell me I didn’t actually kill anyone tonight, Plagg.”

“Well, _technically_….”

“Plagg!” Adrien whimpered, burying his head in his hands as the memories of what had happened this night came back.

“He’s alive now, so no harm done!”

“_No harm done_?” Adrien repeated incredulously.

“We won in the end, kid,” Plagg pointed out. “It can only get better from here.”

“I don’t think that’s totally true,” Adrien muttered, rubbing his temples. “Something is definitely wrong with me. I feel _off_. And that dream….” He shuddered. “I don’t think I’m going back to sleep anytime soon.” Plagg studied him for a moment.

“Well, then, what are you waiting for?” his kwami asked. Adrien raised an eyebrow at him, but the kwami just rolled his eyes. “Go see her. Well, put on some clothes first, obviously, unless you think you’re ready for that—”

“Plagg!” Adrien exclaimed. “It’s late, and she’s…” he trailed off. “Her family is….”

“You can either go now, or we can argue about it some more and go later,” Plagg said. “But we both know you’re going to end up over there.” Adrien shook his head at his kwami and left the bathroom. He didn’t need to go bother his partner over something so stupid as a bad dream! He’d just get some fresh pajamas and go back to bed. He’d be fine. He was totally fine. It was just a dream….

He stopped in the doorway; his eyes landing on his cold, dark, lonely bed, in the middle of an empty room with shadows that looked like prison bars all over it.

A few minutes later, Cat Noir barely noticed the wind whipping through his hair, as quiet as his namesake as he finally reached his goal. He lifted her hatch and dropped down, barely rustling the blankets. If she was sleeping, he didn’t want to disturb her, but God, he _needed_….

Two big, beautiful, bluebell eyes greeted him from where she was already sitting up in her bed with her lamp on, talking to the kwami in her hands. Relief flooded him at the sight of her and he felt his whole body relax, just by being in the same room.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Marinette asked quietly as he closed the hatch behind him. He shook his head.

“Bad dreams.”

She closed her eyes and bit her lip. “Me too,” she whispered.

“It’s the residue akuma magic,” Tikki told them softly. “You weren’t able to get it all out of your system because you were focusing your Lucky Charm on something else.”

“And the Cosmic Reset Button?” Marinette asked with a weak laugh.

Tikki gave her a pointed stare. “You weren’t really focusing on getting rid of the akumas at the time.” Marinette swallowed and looked away. Tikki sighed and patted her wielder’s hand. Then she looked up and gave Adrien a smile. “Talk through it. Secrets won’t help you right now. And Adrien, release Plagg. You both need to rest. We _all_ need to rest.”

Adrien nodded and obeyed the tiny, pink kwami, (glad he’d remembered to put on some pajamas first,) and Plagg quickly flew down with Tikki to the lower level. He saw that they had made a little cloth nest on Marinette’s chaise, Nooroo fast asleep inside it, not even stirring as the other two kwamis joined him and curled up into one big kwami ball.

“How is he?” Adrien asked, his voice still scratchy.

“Better. Tikki agreed that he just needs time,” Marinette replied. He glanced at her, feeling awkward. He shouldn’t have come. He shouldn’t be disturbing her….

“In my dreams, your eyes were purple,” she said quietly.

“Yours were red,” he replied automatically. Then he blinked and looked at her, seeing his own alarm reflected on her face. He sucked in his breath, not wanting to think about the implications of this. But the thoughts came anyway.

“Dark alley next to an abandoned warehouse?” he asked softly. Marinette gulped.

“Yes.”

He felt the bile rising up again.

_Screams, and darkness, and that horrifying **joy**._

What had all those akumas done to him?? To them?? He hadn’t expected to be totally unaffected after everything that had happened tonight, but... But if they were truly having the same dream…. Chills broke out over his body as he tried to control his trembling. What could it mean?

_Was that their future??_

“Adrien, you’re shaking,” he heard Marinette’s voice, but couldn’t look at her. “It was just a dream.” Adrien felt her hands on his arms, pulling him over to her. He didn’t resist, crawling across the bed until he was lying beside her. He took a deep breath as he focused on her thankfully-heavenly-_blue_ eyes, which were searching his own and smiling when they found none of the madness from before. Finally, he allowed himself to relax, resting his head on her shoulder as she pulled the blankets over him and wrapped him in a tight hug. He returned it gratefully.

_Awkward as all hell? _

Check_. _

_Doing stuff (like coming into a girl’s bedroom in the middle of the night!) he was probably gonna kick himself for later? _

Check_. _

_Knowing his reasons were stupid? _

Oh, check_. _

_Did he need to be hugged right now? _

Check. Check. Definite check_._

“Your laugh was _terrifying_,” he mumbled into her shoulder. “Let’s not ever do that, okay?” Even in his arms, she shivered.

“You save me and I’ll save you, kitty,” she agreed.

“Done and done,” he said. He looked up at Marinette’s face and reached up to brush back some stray hairs that had come out of her ponytails. The action brought him closer than he’d intended, but he wasn’t sorry, and she wasn’t pulling away….

“Rest, you two,” Tikki’s voice called up to them. They both quickly pulled away, blushing.

“Thanks, Mom,” Marinette muttered. She rolled her eyes. Adrien covered his face with his hand to stop his own laughter. Ok. Maybe _now_ wasn’t the best time to be exploring how strange their relationship was.

“Goodnight, Adrien,” Marinette leaned forward and gently kissed his forehead. He felt warmth flow through him at the sweetness of the gesture. _God, she was so wonderful. And she was here with him now. He was so, so thankful she was here with him now…._

“Goodnight, Marinette,” he murmured back, settling her back into his arms as they both relaxed. In moments, they were fast asleep.

* * *

_Her high heels clicked against the cold marble of the floor, and she smiled at the sound. It sounded like the ticking of a clock. Like counting down the seconds until the inevitable destruction of her enemies. It was **glorious**. Why had she not indulged in heels before? She no longer needed to worry about tripping, or being clumsy or unconfident ever again. _

_Now she practically floated along. _

** _Now_ ** _ power sang through her veins, filling her with energy. If any piece of the stone beneath her feet had dared to try and make her stumble, it would be decimated by her mere presence._

_Just like everything else._

_The clicking continued as she neared her goal._

_A broken man sat slumped in his chair. The door to his office had long been ripped from its hinges, and she strode through the frame to face him. The lights were all off. She didn’t know if they’d been broken when he was defeated, if he’d turned them off in a vain attempt to hide from her, or if the light itself no longer wanted to witness his shame. It didn’t matter. She brought her own hard, cold light with her. There would be no more hiding._

_Finally. _

** _Justice_ ** _. _

_She savored the word like sugar on her tongue._

_He looked up and paled at her arrival, but made no move to fight or escape her. Unlike the shadow guarding him._

_“NO!! Ladybug, stop!!” Cat Noir shrieked, leaping in front of the man and brandishing his baton at her. “I can’t let you do this!!”_

_Her enemy was still hiding behind others, she thought with a sneer. And his champion this time…. She rolled her eyes. As overly-dramatic as always. And using bad B-movie lines. They were **both** completely predictable._

_“Move, Cat Noir,” she said in a bored tone, not worried in the least at the baton leveled at her. He wouldn’t hurt her. He **couldn’t** hurt her._

_“I won’t!” he declared, sinking even deeper into his crouch. “This isn’t you!”_

_“Isn’t it? Not me?” she asked, feigning surprise. She rubbed her fingers together. “How strange. It certainly feels like me….”_

_“You know what I mean,” Cat Noir growled. “You’re being controlled!”_

_“No, Cat,” she breathed, “for the first time, I am finally free!!”_

_“Free??” he repeated incredulously. She curled her lip at him._

_“You honestly thought I wanted this?” she indicated her suit with disdain. “A floating bug the size of a rat, suddenly telling me what to do all the time? How to behave? You thought I **wanted** the duty and responsibility of saving Paris from monsters **daily**, while maintaining my normal life on top of it? I’m a teenager! I shouldn’t have had to worry about anything more hazardous than chemistry homework! Instead, **I risked my life daily**, and for what? For him to turn around and do it again! And again!! And, even if I do **everything** right, the city is safe and the monster is cured, I **still** get judged and rated for my performance by anyone out there who thinks they have a right to voice an opinion!_

_“‘Why didn’t you come faster, Ladybug?’” she said, changing her voice to be high and mocking. “‘Why didn’t you save my husband first, Ladybug?’ ‘You shouldn’t have used your Lucky Charm like that, Ladybug, this way would’ve been so much better!’ ‘People say you’re the cause of this akuma, Ladybug, what do you have to say to that?’”_

_“When—?” Cat Noir’s eyes were round in horror._

_“’Why aren’t you and Cat Noir together yet, Ladybug?’” she added, her tone turning icy. “’Are you just leading that poor boy on??’”_

_“I never—”_

_“That’s the point, Cat Noir,” she said, her eyes glittering. “Neither of us asked for this fame. We simply, literally, had it dropped in our laps. And it’s entirely HIS fault.” She pointed at the man behind him, still slumped, defeated, in his chair. “Now move, so I may exact my revenge.” _

_“You’ll have to go through me!! You’ll have to kill me first!”_

_“You say that like it’s a deterrent,” she scoffed. “**You**, above everything else, have got to be the most **annoying** thing that has come into my life with these damn earrings.” Cat Noir visibly flinched at her words, looking like she’d slapped him._

_“My lady, you don’t mean that…,” he said softly, sounding like he was pleading. _

_In answer, her yo-yo shot out, winding around his neck and baton. He cried out in alarm, bracing his arms to hold his stick away from himself so she couldn’t choke him. She jerked it forward, sending him sprawling to his knees as he tried to claw at the wire._

_“Don’t I?” she asked archly, enjoying the distressed look on his face as he looked up at her._

_“Marinette, stop, it’s me!” Cat Noir cried. To her surprise, he de-transformed. Now Adrien stared up at her desperately as the yo-yo string fell limply around his neck._

_“Adrien, no!” the man behind him shouted. She didn’t even spare him a glance, staring instead at the boy in front of her._

_“I know you,” she said slowly. Hope filled his eyes for a moment. Then she grasped her yo-yo string more firmly and jerked it tight. Without his baton to prevent it from going all the way around his neck, all he could do was grasp at it with his fingers, trying to gain some slack. _

_“You’re the strutting little peacock who likes to turn girls’ brains to mush and lead them on with an innocent smile!” she snarled._

_“My lady—” he gasped._

_“Ladybug, stop!” the man screamed, finally shooting out of his chair to dart to their side. “Please, take me! Punish me! I’m the one you truly want to hurt!”_

_She finally allowed her gaze to fall on the man. “Don’t worry, Hawkmoth,” she said with a sweet smile. “**You’re next**.” She jerked her arm back._

Marinette woke with a scream, and then kept screaming. She felt a pair of warm hands go around her, holding her close, while a familiar voice murmured in her ear.

“Just a dream, my lady. It was just a dream. You’re fine. I’m fine. Nothing happened….”

She cried out again and clutched Adrien desperately. _He was okay! Thank God!_

“I’m sorry!” she sobbed, “I’m sorry! _I’m so sorry!!_ I didn’t mean it!! That wasn’t me!!”

“Marinette, please, try to breathe,” she heard Tikki say nearby. The kwami sounded worried. “Whatever happened in your dream was not real, you have to remember that—"

“Tikki! Oh my—, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!! You aren’t—! OH MY GOD, AM I REALLY THAT HORRIBLE??” Marinette cried, pulling away from Adrien. He let her go easily, and she scrambled to sit up and get away from them. Shaking, she clutched her head in her hands, pulling at her hair.

“Marinette, I told you before, it’s just the residue akuma magic—” Tikki tried to say.

“I’M A MONSTER!!”

“What??” Adrien cried. “No, of course you’re not! It was just a dream!”

But he was drowned out by the sound of Marinette’s parents barreling up the stairs.

“MARINETTE!! Marinette, what’s wrong??” her father shouted, looking like he was going to take someone out with the rolling pin he had in his hand. He froze when he saw the blond boy in his daughter’s bed, trying to hold her. Both Adrien and Marinette felt the blood drain out of their faces.

_Oh… shit._

“Papa, wait, this isn’t what it looks like—”

“I swear, sir, nothing happened!”

“Explain. _Now_,” Tom growled, his eyes not leaving Adrien’s. Adrien went white and his hands came up in surrender.

“I-uh, um… bad—bad dream?” he said uncertainly, biting his lip. He and Marinette both winced. That was a poor excuse, even to their ears. “We didn’t do anything, I swear!! We just… um, slept… in the… same bed?”

“Mr. Dupain, this is our fault,” Tikki said, swooping in between the teenagers and Marinette’s angry father. “It’s a side-effect of our magic; Ladybug and Cat Noir will heal faster and more thoroughly if they are together.”

“They have to sleep together??” Tom looked horrified. “They’re just teenagers!!”

“No, no!” Tikki said quickly. “That just—”

“Well, if you want to get down to it…,” Plagg drawled.

“SHUT UP, PLAGG!!” Tikki, Marinette, and Adrien all yelled at the same time.

“Oh, _dear_,” came the voice of Marinette’s mother. Sabine sounded like she was trying not to laugh. “And what do we have up here?”

Tikki said something to her in Chinese that Marinette couldn’t follow. Even Adrien looked confused. But Sabine just blinked as comprehension dawned on her face.

“Aww, well, that’s much less fun than what I was going to tease Marinette about,” she said, pouting a bit. “Especially with such a cute boy in her bed.” Marinette flushed. Her mother shot her a pointed glance. “Though you and I are still going to have a talk later, young lady.”

“Yes, maman,” Marinette said meekly.

“All right then, come down for breakfast, all of you. Adrien, that includes you. No sneaking off now. You must be starving.”

Adrien opened his mouth to protest, but instead his stomach gave a very loud growl. He flushed. “I—uhh…. Yes, ma’am,” he said quietly.

“BREAKFAST!!” Plagg screamed in joy. “Oh, I love it when the parents are in on the secret! The snacks get so much better!!!” He and Tikki scooped Nooroo up from the kwami nest and headed downstairs, obviously intent on feeding their still-sleeping friend. Marinette’s mother giggled a bit when they passed her. Then she looked pointedly at the rest of the people in the room.

“Tom. Put the rolling pin away,” she huffed. “They obviously didn’t do anything. They still have their clothes on.”

“Mama!” Marinette cried.

“But, Sabine—” Tom protested.

“Hush, you. It’s just yin-yang magical healing mumbo-jumbo,” Sabine said, patting her husband’s arm. “Honestly, I should’ve seen this coming a while ago. And look at him, he looks much too confused to be guilty.” Adrien opened his mouth to protest, but Marinette was relieved to see that he quickly closed it again. No sense digging himself a deeper hole.

Fortunately, Sabine just shook her head and winked at them as she pushed her reluctant, glowering husband back down the stairs to the kitchen. Marinette and Adrien both let out a long, deep breath as soon as they were gone. Marinette stared down at her trembling hands.

“Princess?” Adrien called softly. She looked up at him thought watery eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but choked on it and buried her face in her hands, bawling.

“I-I-I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry!” she sobbed.

“Hey, no,” he said firmly, pulling her back into a hug. “We are not blaming ourselves for anything that happens in our dreams. Otherwise, I’m guilty of… literally—” He gulped, unable to continue that sentence as he held her tighter. “I’m still here, safe and sound. Nothing happened.”

“But it felt good!” she confessed, sobbing harder as he awkwardly rubbed her back. “I felt _relieved_. Happy. Like I was actually… _justified_ in doing something—_saying_ something like that—” She cut herself off, shaking her head. “It’s not me!” she insisted, looking up at him. “I don’t really feel that way!!”

“I know,” he assured her.

“And Tikki—” she turned, looking at where her kwami had disappeared. “She must hate me now….”

“I doubt Tikki could hate anyone,” Adrien said softly. “Certainly not someone like you.”

Marinette looked like she wanted to argue, but then both their stomachs growled at the same time, making them flush even deeper from embarrassment.

“Ok, your mom has a point. I’m really hungry,” Adrien confessed. “When was the last time you had a meal?”

“Yesterday morning,” Marinette admitted. “Mom and Dad tried to get me to eat something when we got home last night, but I was too tired.”

“Food?”

“Yes, food.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My name is WaRC and I do bad things to good characters.


	3. Consequences…of Family Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you thought things were weird before, welcome to left field!

Getting to breakfast was a chore in-and-of itself. Marinette couldn’t believe she was still so tired (well, she could, nightmares weren’t exactly restful,) and a sudden headache hit her out of nowhere. Fortunately, aspirin was readily available in a house used to her clumsy ways.

As was food. Marinette giggled a bit at Adrien’s face. _He was cute when he drooled._

Breakfast was quiet at first, even with three magical pixie-like creatures sitting at the table. Marinette and Adrien were slow to get started, and Nooroo appeared to still be half-asleep. He would open his mouth when one of the other kwamis offered him a piece of food, but he didn’t respond to anything else.

And then there was the _other_ problem; where her normally-jovial father (who had already told her that he _liked_ Adrien!) was silently glaring at the blond boy he’d found in his daughter’s bed. Adrien seemed to curl in on himself, taking smaller and smaller bites as Tom glowered at him from across the table. Finally, Marinette had had enough.

“Papa, stop it, we didn’t do anything!” she cried, slamming her hands down on the table. Instantly, the two lights above them shattered. Marinette yelped. Adrien instinctively flung himself away from the table. But Tom and Sabine just blinked in the now-semi-darkness of the kitchen. Marinette blinked at the lights in horror.

_Had **she** done that?_

“Well, I’ll guess I’ll get us some more food,” Sabine said easily, clearing the dishes that were now liberally-laced with debris.

“I’ve been meaning to replace those lights anyway,” Tom chuckled, helping his wife clear the table. He winked at the two teenagers staring at them in shock. “And calm down, honey,” he said, patting Marinette’s arm, “you know I like Adrien. It was just a bit surprising to see you two together so soon. I was expecting _normal_ dating, and courting, and _asking permission to marry her_ _first_,” he growled, staring down Adrien again.

“Papa!” Marinette cried.

“Tom!” Sabine laughed.

“Yes, sir,” Adrien said, his voice soft. Tom raised an eyebrow, and when Adrien nodded at him firmly, he grinned at the boy in approval. Marinette covered her cheeks to make sure they hadn’t actually caught on fire. It certainly felt like they had.

“Did I just get engaged?” she whimpered at Tikki.

“Betrothed,” Tikki corrected, shaking with suppressed laughter. Marinette squeaked.

“You both have to graduate high school first,” Sabine said firmly, patting her hand. “And maybe university too.”

_Yeah, sure, Mom, but first I’ll die of shame, thanks._

_HERE LIES MARINETTE _

_NOBODY QUITE KNOWS WHY HER HEART GAVE OUT LIKE THAT, BUT, HEY! AT LEAST SHE BEAT THE BAD GUY FIRST!_

“You two are being surprisingly calm about all of this,” Plagg suddenly said, cocking his head suspiciously at Tom and Sabine. Beside him, Tikki snickered and brushed a piece of glass away from Nooroo. The two parents smiled at each other, shrugged, and started making more food.

“Magic runs in both our families,” Sabine explained. The cat kwami cocked his head at her for a moment.

“Wait a minute, you-you’re a dragon!” Plagg realized, his eyes widening. Sabine nodded and looked over at her husband.

“And for centuries, my family was in possession of the Great Bear Miraculous!” Tom declared, posing with a pair of croissants. Marinette gaped at her parents, her mouth dropping open. Plagg whipped his head to glare at Tikki, who just shrugged.

“The bear?” Adrien asked, raising an eyebrow at Marinette’s dad. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It got lost a long time ago,” Tom admitted with a casual wave of his hand. “We think it immigrated to America. But the magic’s still in my blood.”

“Wait… a—a dragon?” Marinette said weakly, staring at her mother, who was resetting the table.

“Many, _many_ times removed, on my mother’s side,” Sabine said, nodding. She smiled at her daughter. “What, did you think all those fairy tales I told you about ‘the powerful dragon who fell in love with a princess’ growing up were just stories? Not all magic is Miraculous.”

Marinette’s eyes widened as those stories suddenly took on a whole new meaning. Her family. That was her family. Her mother’s mother’s—

“So, Uncle Wang…?”

“No, he doesn’t have it,” Sabine said, sounding a bit sad. “At least not dragon magic. Otherwise, he would’ve been much harder to akumatize while he was here. My father’s side has some magic, but it’s not nearly as powerful. Think about it. I’ll bet Hawkmoth wasn’t even able to give you a new name when he tried to akumatize you, was he?”

“No, he wasn’t,” Marinette blinked, looking wildly at Adrien, then back to her mother.

“Names have power, especially over dragons,” Sabine said, nodding in satisfaction. “If you’d completely submitted to his power, he could’ve given you a new name, and you would’ve become a more-powerful akuma than any we’ve seen here yet. As it is, I’m sure he knew about your heritage and, shall we say, ‘jumped the gun’ at the first chance he could get.”

“I think that’s exactly what happened,” Tikki agreed. “I remember being surprised that he would try to akumatize her over something so little.”

“It wasn’t exactly little,” Marinette muttered, remembering the incident as well. “I really wanted to punch Chloe’s face in.”

“That’s happened a lot over the years with Chloe,” her mother laughed. “And you’ve yet to give in.”

“So why hasn’t he tried to akumatize you, Mom?” Marinette asked, her brow furrowed, “if you’re a dragon too?”

Sabine shrugged. “I’ve never given him the chance. I’ve been told I have a very non-confrontational personality,” she said with a wry grin, as she placed some fresh fruit on the table. “Also, meditation techniques. Some of which you should probably start learning yourself if you’re truly coming into your power now. Tikki, how much am I allowed to teach her?” she asked the pink kwami. Tom set down a plate of baked goods next to the kwamis. Plagg and Tikki immediately dove on it, scooping up snacks before Tikki replied.

“As much as you want,” Tikki chirped around her scone. “As her mother, you get prerogative. The Old Houses made the rule about not interfering with Miraculous users because sometimes their rival’s teachings got to be a bit shady. And even then, it was never a hard-and-fast law. More like guidelines. And I think we can all agree that you don’t have any ulterior motives here.”

“Old Houses?” Adrien repeated, looking confused. Tikki nodded.

“I suppose there’s no harm in you knowing,” she said, thinking a bit. “It used to be that certain Miraculous gems would stay within a family for generations,” the kwami explained, gesturing to Tom. “Passed down from father to son, mother to daughter… that sort of thing. It was believed that doing so would make the bearers even more powerful as time went by. Which was true. Wielding a Miraculous increases the person’s innate magic, which can then be passed down to the wielder’s children. In fact, children of the Old Houses were often encouraged to marry someone who also had a connection to another Miraculous, to further strengthen the bloodlines.”

“But then some of those families got _too_ powerful, and let it go to their heads,” Plagg added, scowling. “Wars were often started over the jewels, and some people tried to collect as many as they could, just to gain more power. Families tried to influence their own bearers so much that internal fights were common as well. _Some_ people still had morals, and tried to set up some basic rules for dealing with Miraculous wielders, but…,” Plagg’s tail twitched and he shrugged. “It wasn’t really enforceable.”

“So, centuries ago, many of the Miraculouses were rounded up and put under the protection of the Guardians,” Tikki finished, “an ancient order that was trained from childhood to respect and use the jewels for the good of all mankind.”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “If you believe in such a thing,” he added.

“And that’s why we don’t really go by the Old Houses anymore,” Tikki said, rolling her eyes at the other kwami. “But they still exist. And some of them still have magic and remember the old ways.”

“But we—ok, wait. You mean, I’ve had magic this whole time?” Marinette asked, incredulous. Her mother nodded.

“Families don’t usually tell their children about the magic until they come of age,” she said, as Marinette half-rose out of her seat. “It prevents the teenagers from… using their powers inappropriately. But sometimes we get someone who has a little too much power to explain away.” She smiled at Marinette. Marinette pointed at herself, dumbfounded. Her mother laughed.

“We got lucky with you,” Sabine said, hugging her daughter. “Your mind has always been so sharp. You try to figure out everything on your own. Even things that can’t be explained. When your powers started coming in, and strange things started happening around you, you decided you were simply clumsy, and unlucky. Unfortunately, then your magic started to focus in that direction!” She laughed. “I thought about telling you about your powers, just so you could learn to focus them better, but like everything else, you rose up to the challenge.”

“Rose up to the challenge?” Marinette repeated, looking confused.

“Always having a plan, and a backup plan, almost like you _expect_ the first plan to fail? That comes from being used to being ‘unlucky,’” Tom explained, smiling. “And being able to easily switch between plans after the first one fails? That kind of flexibility takes practice, sweetheart. I usually need a few moments to reflect on what went wrong with Plan A before I can move onto Plan B. You don’t. And I’ve seen enough of Ladybug’s tactics on the TV to know it’s working for you.”

Marinette blushed, looking away from her beaming parents. Her gaze landed on her partner, who was staring at the table in front of him and frowning.

“Adrien?” she called softly, “are you okay?”

“My father knew,” he muttered. He looked up at her. “My father knew about the Old Houses. Remember, he said we’d be a good match?” Marinette nodded. Hawkmoth _had_ mentioned something like that. He’d even lamented losing her “potential” before trying to brain her with his cane. Adrien looked over at Tikki and Plagg almost desperately.

“My family. Were they…?”

“An Agreste is a type of butterfly,” Tikki confirmed softly, nodding, patting Nooroo gently on the head. “They were one of the strongest houses. Your family has always been very proud of its heritage.”

Adrien stared at the tiny, purple kwami for a moment, hung his head and drew in a long, shuddering breath. Then the blond glared at Plagg, his eyes slowly filling with tears.

“You said you didn’t know,” he said, his voice shaking a bit. “How could you _not know_?? How could you _not_ know who he was???”

“The Moth Brooch was one of the jewels given to the Guardians _ages_ ago!” Plagg exclaimed. “It’s been held by other people than just your family! And then it was _lost_! Supposedly forever! How was I supposed to know that your father still had enough of a connection to it to find the damn thing when the rest of us couldn’t??”

“Stop. Stop it, both of you,” Sabine said, calmly but firmly, when it looked like Adrien wanted to argue some more. She stepped in between the kwami and his master. “We will gain nothing by bickering right now. Adrien, dear, remember, Old Houses haven’t had their respective Miraculous for many years. The jewels have all gotten shuffled around, especially since the Guardians now choose based on merit and personality rather than bloodlines. Otherwise, your friend Juleka would’ve received the Cat Miraculous instead of you.”

“Juleka?” Adrien and Marinette both exclaimed at the same time. They blinked at each other.

“She does kind of remind me of a cat,” Adrien said, thinking.

“And remember, she had that photo jinx on her!” Marinette said, remembering. She looked at Plagg. “Was that because of you?? Bad luck? Because her family had the Cat Miraculous?” The cat kwami nodded, looking impressed by her deduction.

“And paid for it dearly. I didn’t like the last guy in her family who claimed the ring,” Plagg said, shrugging. “So, I cursed him. It’s not my fault he decided to let his descendants suffer rather than getting himself purified.”

“Plagg!” Marinette exclaimed, looking appalled. The kwami shot her a dry stare.

“I’ve done worse, I assure you.”

“You haven’t done anything to me, have you?” Adrien asked, looking nervous.

“Hmm, not yet…,” Plagg said, looking at his wielder appraisingly. Adrien blanched. The kwami snickered. “You’re a pretty good kid. And you feed me well. I don’t curse everyone. Just the jerks.” Adrien breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, who would’ve gotten the Ladybug earrings if we were going by the Old Houses?” Marinette asked Tikki. “Rose?”

“They would’ve made quite the pair, wouldn’t they?! But, no,” Tikki giggled. “Rose has fairy blood, not Miraculous ties.”

“No way!” Adrien exclaimed, looking excited. “Fairies are real too??”

“Kid, you’ve lived with _me_ for the past year,” Plagg said, giving his wielder an incredulous stare. “How can you _not_ believe in something as simple as fairies??”

“Most of the fairy tales you know are romanticized versions of things that actually happened,” Tikki said, still smiling. “As for your original question, Marinette, if we were still going by Old Houses, the earrings probably would’ve gone to Alix.”

“The Kubdels?” Marinette said, frowning. Then her eyes lit up. “Oh, the watch! I knew something about it felt familiar when I picked it up as Ladybug!”

Tikki nodded. “It was made by one of my favorite bearers. An inventor who could’ve changed the world into that steampunk fantasy so many people enjoy nowadays. He decided against it. I won’t tell you his name, since he kept his identity secret until the end, but I’m sure with a little digging you could figure it out.”

“Is _everyone_ in our class somehow related to magic?” Adrien exclaimed.

“Well, yes, actually,” Sabine answered calmly. “Remember how we told you that the Old Houses liked to have their children associate with other children of magic users? That continues to this day, even if many us have forgotten the old ways.”

“How else do you think Andre Bourgeois was convinced to let his daughter go to school rather than homeschool her like Adrien here?” Tom added, nodding in the blond boy’s direction.

“Oh. My. God. _Chloe_ has magic???” Marinette exclaimed. The look of horror on her face inspired several laughs around the room.

“Probably not enough for her to use, sweetie,” Sabine assured her. “In fact, that’ll be true for most of your classmates. Chloe simply has some good connections. Her best one, of course, is the line she shares with Adrien, from your mothers.” she added. Adrien’s eyes widened.

“Wait, WHAT??” he cried. “I’m related to Chloe??”

Sabine frowned at him. “I’d think that’d be obvious, dear. You two look so much alike.” She blinked when he continued gaping open-mouthed at her. “You’re cousins! Didn’t your parents say anything??”

Adrien shook his head slowly, looking like his mind had been blown.

“OhmyGod_doessheknow_???” he finally babbled.

“I’m guessing not,” Tom laughed behind him.

“I think we let the cat out of the bag,” Sabine said. “Oh dear.”

Marinette giggled a bit, then couldn’t hold it back anymore. She threw her head back and howled with laughter. “Oh, please… _please_ don’t tell her until I’m in the room, Adrien,” she begged, still snickering. “I have to see the look on her face—!”

“Marinette!” Sabine scolded.

“What?” Marinette laughed, gasping. “Maman, you don’t understand! The way she hangs on him—!" She collapsed on the table, still laughing. Adrien childishly stuck his tongue out at her.

Suddenly the phone rang. Tom answered it with a cheerful, “Hello!” After a moment, he grimaced and looked at Adrien.

“Ah, yes, ma’am. I take it he didn’t tell you when he left,” the baker said, raising an eyebrow. Adrien winced.

“Natalie,” he muttered guiltily. He hadn’t even remembered to bring his phone with him. Oops.

“No, no, I’ll let you talk to him, we’re just having some breakfast,” Tom said. He gave Adrien a pointed look and held out the cordless phone. “You can take it downstairs for some privacy if you want to, son.”

“Thank you,” Adrien said, accepting the phone with a sigh. “Hi, Natalie….” He stepped out the door to the hallway, closing it behind himself so he could be scolded in private.

_“Adrien, I thought I made myself clear,”_ Natalie said, clearly exasperated with him.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. I just… couldn’t stay there last night,” Adrien said, rubbing the back of his neck even though she couldn’t see him. “Not with… everything that’s happened.”

His new guardian sighed. _“Were you at least safe about it?”_

“Safe? What—OH, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!” Adrien facepalmed as soon as he realized what she was talking about. “WE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!!”

_“Good. Now, I need you to come home, Adrien,”_ Natalie said, as unruffled as ever. “_Paris isn’t safe right now.”_

Adrien sighed. “Yeah, okay… I’ll head home here in a few minutes. Can I at least finish breakfast?”

_“That’s fine,”_ Natalie allowed. _“But no superhero antics. I’ll send the car.”_

“Right, right,” Adrien agreed wearily. Then he froze. “Wait… what did you just say, Natalie?”

For the first time in his life, he heard his father’s assistant curse.

“Natalie, do you know who I am?” he exclaimed with rising horror. “How long have you—”

_“Adrien, I’m in charge of the mansion’s state-of-the-art security system,”_ Natalie snapped. _“I get alerted every time you open a window late at night. The better question would be, how could I **not** know?? Now, I gave you last night as a bye, but—”_

“Did you know who my father was too??” Adrien exclaimed, interrupting her. The phone went silent for a moment. Adrien grit his teeth. “_Natalie_??”

_“We can have this conversation when you get back home,”_ she said calmly.

“Or we can have it now,” Adrien growled, seething. “You knew, didn’t you?? This whole time. And you watched us play each other! Was it amusing? Did we _entertain_ you, Natalie??”

_“That is **not** what happened,”_ Natalie said crisply, _“and it certainly wasn’t my intention. I have my reasons, Adrien. You must trust me—”_

“No. No, I really don’t,” Adrien snarked. “_Trust_ you?? You’ve been lying to me for months! You could’ve ended this whole thing before it began!”

_“I had my reasons!!”_

“And I’m just supposed to _trust_ that you won’t try to take me prisoner as soon as I get home? Or try to steal the ring from me? Good God, were you working with him??”

_“Adrien!!”_

“Were you??” Adrien cried.

_“I was his assistant, Adrien. I did whatever he required of me. And now I need to take care of you—"_

“_No_. No way. You can cancel that car, Natalie. I’m not coming home.”

His father’s assistant sighed again_. “I can have the Dupain-Chengs arrested for kidnapping if that’s the way you want to play this,” _Natalie said calmly. Adrien clenched his fist and shook with rage.

“You wouldn’t.”

_“Try me.”_

She would, Adrien knew. She’d do it in a heartbeat and not bat an eye. He clenched his fist.

_“You can come home quietly or with a police escort,”_ Natalie said.

“There are other ways to get away from you,” he muttered, his voice shaking. He fingered his ring.

_“Ah, yes. Do you know what happens when a superhero’s identity is revealed to the public, Adrien?”_ Natalie asked. If her tone hadn’t still been emotionless, he’d have said it was sickeningly sweet. _“I’ve been told the crowds aren’t pretty. Even if it’s just screaming fangirls.”_

“Don’t you dare,” Adrien growled. “Natalie….” On the other end of the phone, his father’s assistant grumbled a bit.

_“Fine,”_ she said wearily. _“You have my promise not to reveal you or your friend to the public, as a sign of **trust**, Adrien. I don’t want us to become enemies; I simply want you safe. I will not steal your ring, and I will not do anything against the Dupain-Chengs. But I need you to come home. Please. At least until your father is back on his feet. Let me do my job. Paris isn’t safe for you.”_

“If it isn’t safe, then I have a job to do!!”

_“Adrien, I **saw** you last night!”_ Natalie exclaimed. _“Neither you nor Miss Dupain-Cheng are in any shape to take on anything right now! Much less fight a new enemy that you know nothing about!! I’m frankly surprised you made it to her house in one piece!”_

Honestly, now that he thought about it, so was Adrien. He didn’t remember most of the trip, just the single-minded goal he’d had at the time. In fact, just thinking about it now made him feel tired. He slumped against the wall.

“Fine,” he finally said. “I’ll come home. But I—,” he gulped. “You’ll keep your promise? You won’t try to take the ring?”

_“I swear it.”_

Adrien sighed in defeat. There wasn’t really anything else he could do. He couldn’t run forever. “Send the car. I’ve just got a few things to finish up here.”

* * *

Marinette watched the door close behind Adrien as he went to take his phone call, and then she turned to face her parents.

“You’re hiding something, aren’t you?” she said, frowning. Sabine and Tom’s eyes widened. “I can tell, Maman. You’ve been trying to distract me ever since we came downstairs.” Her parents looked at each other for a moment, then sighed. Tom pulled out the TV remote and reluctantly switched it on.

“Don’t be getting any ideas,” he warned, as the news special came on. Marinette’s eyes went wide.

**AKUMAS COVER PARIS! MANY VICTIMS AKUMATIZED!! LADYBUG AND CAT NOIR NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!!**

“No!” she whispered in horror.

“Marinette, listen to me…” her mother started.

“Mama, I have to go!” Marinette cried, standing up on shaky legs.

“You are not going anywhere, young lady,” her father said firmly.

“But, Papa! You don’t understand!! _PARIS NEEDS ME_!!”

“The akumatizations aren’t lasting long,” Tom argued, gesturing to the TV. “Especially if the victim is just confused or had a spike of anger. The butterflies don’t have a driving force behind them anymore.”

“It’s still causing damage!” Marinette protested, her eyes glued to the screen, where a woman was hit by a black butterfly, changed into a pink monster, floated for a bit, shot a beam of light into a nearby shop, and suddenly collapsed on the ground, the butterfly fluttering away as quickly as it came.

“How long has this been going on??” she cried.

“Ever since last night,” Sabine said, resting a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. Marinette looked at her frantically, but her mother shook her head. “Honey, you stumbled down the stairs on your way to breakfast, and after your little outburst, both you and Adrien have been half-asleep while eating your food. You’ve gotten a little better with some breakfast in you, but you’re still running on adrenaline right now, and you _need_ to rest some more.”

“I’m fine!” Marinette insisted. “I can sleep when all this is over!”

“It might not be that simple, Marinette,” Tikki said, floating over to look at the television too. “We have no idea how many akumas survived the blast. Going out now might force them to regroup. They’re scattered and confused without Hawkmoth. This might be a good opportunity for you and Cat Noir to gain your strength back.”

“But—”

“Not to mention, you still have that residue akuma magic still inside you that we need to take care of. Preferably before it becomes a part of you,” Tikki added. “Unless you want to continue to have those nightmares?”

“No, no, of course not!”

“Then we need to purify both of you, before you try to transform again,” Tikki said firmly. Her expression softened when Marinette looked desperately at the TV again. “I know you want to save everyone, but you have to take care of yourself too, Marinette.”

“I just—I can’t help??” Marinette asked, looking like she wanted to cry as two fighting children were akumatized into an ice monster and a fire monster who started boxing in the middle of a playground. One of them hit the other, then both of them de-transformed and fell to the ground, where they started to cry.

Tikki sighed. “Marinette, I can’t stop you,” she said slowly. “That’s the cost of the Miraculous magic: if you call on the transformation, I have no choice but to answer. But, if you still want _advice_,” the kwami added, floating over and gently turning Marinette’s face towards herself, away from the TV. “You’ll be much more effective if you aren’t fighting yourself as well as the enemy.”

Slowly, reluctantly, Marinette nodded.

Adrien stepped back inside. He looked as sullen and helpless as Marinette felt.

“Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it fast,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The extended weariness you see here is based on my own experiences with adrenaline and near-death experiences; the most recent being a car-crash. You can be fine at the scene, and the next couple of days even, and then all of a sudden you have to sleep for 14 hours straight and your body hurts all over. No, I am not kidding. It’s a real thing. I lessened the effects on the kiddos and gave it to them earlier because of their healing ability and latent magic. But I didn’t want to get too much into it in the story, because let’s face it, unless you’re into medical stuff, this is probably boring. You can argue that, as superheroes, they’re used to stuff like this, and I would likely agree. But a LOT of shtick went down, and I imagine even magic needs a moment to breathe every now and then.
> 
> Juleka and Alix’s family backstory has been a headcanon of mine ever since they were akumatized in Season 1. The photo jinx and the mysterious, magical-looking watch weren’t explained nearly enough for my satisfaction. We got more later, but still not enough for my peace of mind.


	4. Consequences…of Too Much Power

As soon as her parents sent them back to the bedroom to make sure Adrien had all his belongings (he wasn’t going to tell them he hadn’t come with shoes, even if they figured it out for themselves, it just felt weird), Marinette stormed up the stairs to her room.

“She can’t do this!” she raged. “It’s not right—it’s not….”

“She _can_ do this,” Adrien said wearily, following her. “Legally, Natalie’s my guardian now. Unless you want to out my father as Hawkmoth so we can say she was an accomplice, and then trust my fate to the system, I—_Marinette_??” Adrien exclaimed, as Marinette collapsed on her chaise. He ran to her side.

“I’m fine,” she groaned. Adrien noticed with alarm that her hands were trembling as she tried to sit back up. “I’m just so tired all the time today… and I-I can’t think straight, and there’s all this new information floating around in my head, and people out there need us, and I absolutely_ hate being helpless!!” _she screamed. The window nearby cracked. She gasped. Adrien eyed it warily.

“Marinette, you need to calm down,” Tikki said, swooping up to her wielder.

“Tikki, why does this keep happening?” Marinette exclaimed. “I’ve been a basket-case before—”

“The Cosmic-Reset Button probably caused a leak,” Plagg said, hauling Nooroo on his back. He glowered when he realized that Marinette had squashed the kwami nest on the chaise. She gave him an apologetic grin and quickly re-shaped it.

“Caused a leak??” she asked, once he and the still-sleeping Nooroo settled into the fabric.

“It’s like this,” Tikki said, settling into her explanation-mode again, “magic runs through a person’s system like blood runs in your veins, or like a river runs in a riverbed. A Miraculous can increase it and hold it steady for as long as you’re wearing the suit, but when you’re not, it’s up to you and your body to regulate your normal levels. Since you and Adrien have both used some rather extreme spells in the past 24 hours, not even your Miraculous can get you back to your original levels just yet. Basically, your system is overflowing with magic. And some of it spills out when your emotions get high. Then we get… accidents.” She gestured to the broken window.

“Extreme spells?” Marinette asked, looking at Adrien curiously. She knew he had done something last night, but not what.

He flushed. “Tikki called it the Catalyst,” he explained, gulping. “Don’t worry, I’m not planning on using that one ever again if I can help it,” he assured her. “It sucked.”

“And I used the… well, the…,” Marinette flushed, quickly looking away from Adrien.

“The Cosmic-Reset Button,” Plagg finished, grinning at the girl.

“True Love’s Kiss,” Tikki corrected him, rolling her eyes.

“Meh, I like my name for it better. Much cooler.”

“But it’s not accurate!” Tikki protested. “It doesn’t reset everything! It’s a power surge!! And she didn’t even use it correctly!” She turned to Marinette, her arms folded. “You’re not supposed to try to hold all the energy inside yourself like that! _That’s_ probably what caused the magical leak!”

Marinette felt her face growing redder and redder as she realized that Adrien was listening closely to the conversation now and grinning from ear-to-ear.

“Tikki, can we please talk about this later?” she muttered to her kwami.

“Oh, no, no, no!” Adrien protested, still grinning, “I was half out of it when all this happened! I want details!”

“You were turning into a black-goop monster!” Marinette exclaimed.

“You kissed a black-goop monster?”

“I—ugh!! Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?!” she asked, her embarrassment making her a bit snappy.

“He can honk the horn for a few minutes,” Adrien said, waving carelessly. He leaned closer to her, hands innocently behind his back, still grinning. “Soooo, true love’s kiss, huh?”

“I will have to stop saving you if you’re gonna be this smug about it….” Marinette muttered. He waggled his eyebrows at her and she spun away from him in a huff. (_Ok, so it was mostly to make sure he couldn’t see how red her face was right now, but she was still mad at him!_) To her surprise, his arms wound around her waist.

“Aww, don’t be like that, Bugaboo,” he teased, turning her back around. “I love you too.”

_WILL THERE EVER BE A DAY IN MY LIFE WHERE THIS GUY DOESN’T MAKE ME BLUSH LIKE A LOON?? _Marinette wondered, covering her face.

“Huh,” Adrien said, curiously.

_OH GOD, DOES HE SEE ME BLUSHING AND JUST NOW REALIZE WHAT A TOTAL DORKASAURUS I AM?! HOW LONG BEFORE HE RUNS OUT THE— _

“I just realized I’ve never told you that before, have I?”

Marinette looked up at him wildly, pausing her inner screaming for the moment. “Wh-what?”

“I love you,” Adrien said simply. (Aaand her blush was back. With a vengeance.) “I mean, you told me—screamed it at me, really—and I teased you about your pictures, but…. After all this—well, _craziness _these past few days… I forgot to tell _you_. I love you so much, Marinette.” He smiled at her, leaned forward and—

Outside, a car honked. Adrien froze, growled for a moment, and then leaned in again.

The car honked again. Adrien took a deep breath and—was stopped by two fingers pressed against his lips. He blinked at Marinette, who looked as astonished as he was that she’d stopped him.

“Maybe… it’s not the best time?” Marinette suggested, proud that her voice only trembled a little. 

With a sigh, Adrien dropped his head on her shoulder. “I hate my luck.”

“Ahem,” Tikki coughed pointedly to get their attention.

“Right—right!! Purification!! We need to do that first!” Marinette said quickly, stepping back away from Adrien. She focused on her kwami (and she was _not_ shooting Adrien embarrassed glances, thank you very much!). “How—um, how exactly do we do that?”

“We’ll all need to go visit Master Fu,” Tikki said.

Adrien winced. “Not the best time,” he reminded her, using his thumb to gesture outside, where another round of honking had just started.

“That’s all right,” the kwami assured him. “I didn’t want to go just yet anyway. We still need to return Nooroo to the Great Guardian, but the little guy’s so drained that I wanted Marinette to try something with her Miraculous first. But it’s something neither of you are up for just yet,” she reminded them sternly, before they could open their mouths, “so, until then, you two should use some meditation techniques to re-take control of your dreams. That should help a bit.”

“Tikki…,” Marinette started, her eyes already filling with tears.

“Don’t apologize,” Tikki said firmly. “None of that was you. An akuma’s magic is insidious, Marinette. It gets into your system and exploits any and all negative emotions that you might have. Some negative emotions are necessary for everyday life, so I’m certainly not blaming you for anything. Especially something that you and I have already talked about multiple times. I can help walk you through some new techniques, and Plagg will do the same for Adrien. Right, Plagg? You know the ones.”

Plagg grumbled a bit.

“Plagg…, I expect you to _help_ him,” Tikki growled warningly.

“Fine, fine,” Plagg said carelessly.

“For now,” Tikki continued, just a bit of growl left in her tone. “We need to try to fix that ‘leak.’ Marinette, Adrien, you’ll need to be in physical contact for this.”

Adrien grinned widely again. “More true love’s kiss??” he asked hopefully, licking his lips.

“Not this time, tomcat,” Tikki giggled. “Holding hands should be enough.”

“Dang it.”

“If I die when I faint and concuss myself because _you_ couldn’t stop making me blush, I swear to God, I’m haunting you,” Marinette growled under her breath as she quickly grabbed Adrien’s hands before he could get any more ideas. He laughed. She closed her eyes in despair.

“I said that out loud, didn’t I.”

“Yep.”

“Just bury me now,” she groaned, letting her head fall into his chest so he couldn’t see her face anymore.

Adrien let go of her hands to wrap his arms around her shoulders. “Not yet, Bugaboo,” he murmured, closing his eyes and focusing on memorizing this moment. On how she felt in his arms. Her warmth, her scent…. This was _heaven_. And if he was gonna be separated from her for the rest of the day… well, he wanted to remember it. “We’ve gotta focus on getting you all fixed up first.” He felt her body relax against him, her hands coming up to rest on his shoulders, and he gave her a squeeze, desperately hoping that he could do whatever it was the kwamis had planned.

“All right, Tikki,” he said. “How do we do this?”

He opened an eye to see both kwamis gaping at them.

“You-you’re already doing it,” Tikki exclaimed, blinking. She turned to her counterpart. “Plagg, did you teach him how to do that??”

“How to do what?” Adrien asked, confused. Marinette partially turned in his arms to see what was happening.

“Nope,” Plagg said, looking proud. “My kid just has a natural gift.”

“You two are sharing your energy,” Tikki exclaimed. “Like you’ve known each other for years—like you’ve trained for it!”

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other.

“Tikki, we’re really not doing anything different,” Marinette said. “It’s just a hug.” At least, she didn’t think so. She was simply with her partner, taking on yet another challenge with him.

“But—but, this,” the pink kwami muttered to herself. “Years of training… meditation… they do it second-nature….”

“You really gonna look a gift horse in the mouth?” Plagg pointed out. “We’re running out of time.”

“Fine,” Tikki grumbled. “Adrien, I need you to focus like you did with the Catalyst.” Adrien paled a little. She seemed to catch onto his reluctance and smiled at him reassuringly. “Just focus on healing her this time, and your energy will flow automatically. There’s no need to give it an extra burst, like last time.”

Adrien nodded and looked down at Marinette one more time before he pulled her close and tucked her under his chin, closing his eyes. _I would give you a hundred Catalysts if it meant you were okay, milady,_ he thought, willing his energy into her. Happiness flooded into him when he felt her reach up and return the hug, and his body automatically relaxed. _Take it. Take it all. I’m yours, princess. _

Even with his eyes shut, he could sense a strange glow in the room and cracked open an eye to see twin streaks of red and black circling him and Marinette. Plagg and Tikki, he realized. They must be doing their own part in all of this. He smiled and allowed his eye to fall shut again as he focused on Marinette.

She was so small, so sleight in his arms, but at the same time, there was a solid heat that came straight from her heart. Just being in her presence lit up his world. He may be able to surround and protect her, but she…

She was his strength.

The glow around them was just starting to fade when he heard a commotion downstairs.

_“Oh dear, I’m sorry, we were just giving them a moment to say goodbye—Marinette! Adrien’s bodyguard—!”_

Adrien’s bodyguard flung open the trapdoor, glaring at his charge. Adrien quickly sprang away from Marinette.

“Sorry! Last hug!” he laughed awkwardly. The Gorilla’s expression didn’t change. Adrien sighed. “Yeah, okay. I’m coming,” he said resignedly. He managed one last smile at Marinette. “See you at school?”

“School. Right,” Marinette agreed, waving goodbye.

He hoped she’d be okay as he followed his bodyguard down the stairs.

* * *

Marinette didn’t dare move. If she went out there to see him off… she had a feeling she might try to grab him in another hug and never let him go. But he had to go. So instead, she listened closely to the sounds below. Her mother insisting Adrien take a bag of goodies with him. Her father telling him he was welcome anytime. And then, finally, the door downstairs closing and the sound of a car driving off.

He was gone. Adrien was really gone. The whole world seemed darker. Colder. She shivered and hugged herself.

“Tikki,” she asked quietly. “did it work?”

“Well, let’s test it out,” her kwami suggested slyly. “Which will get a more-emotionally-charged response? The idea that Adrien basically asked your parents’ permission to marry you—” Marinette squeaked and quickly covered her mouth to stop herself from shrieking in excitement. “—or the fact that he straight up just told you that he loved you?”

_Yeah, there was no hiding that squeal of delight._

“Scream into your pillow,” Tikki reminded her, sounding extremely smug.

Marinette ran to her bed to do just that. Amazingly, no electrical appliances short-circuited, and the rest of her windows remained unharmed.

“Tikki, I feel like I could fly!!”

* * *

Adrien felt as though a million chains were binding him, holding him down as he entered the mansion. Not for the first time, the building seemed more like a jail than a home. And there, waiting for him at the top of the stairs (like his father had countless times before), was Natalie. Adrien narrowed his eyes.

“So, you said you had ‘reasons,’” he said, stopping just short of the stairs and giving her his best defiant glare. As usual, Natalie seemed completely unfazed.

“I did indeed,” she acknowledged, coming down the stairs to meet him. “Three major reasons. First and foremost: by the time I realized who Hawkmoth was, he had superpowers, and I did not. Tell me, Adrien, do you think any normal citizen would be able to get away from you or best you in a fight while you were in your catsuit?”

Adrien looked away. The simple response to that was a loud, resounding “no.” Natalie took his silence for the answer it was.

“Secondly,” she continued, “as his right hand, I was able to mitigate damages caused by his akumas.”

“Wha—Ladybug and I did that!” Adrien exclaimed. “We always made sure the victim was okay before we left, and her Miraculous Cure fixed everything anyway!”

“The Miraculous Cure can put things back together, but it cannot change the past,” Natalie corrected. “Many times, I’m sure you heard the akuma victims say that they didn’t remember what happened. Let’s just say that it didn’t always stay that way. I’m the one who made sure they all got the psychological help they needed afterwards.”

“Can you prove that?” Adrien asked, not yet willing to believe that he and his partner had simply left those people with more problems than they’d taken away.

“I’d rather not,” Natalie said. “As most of it is very personal. But, as an example, Mr. D’Argencourt has a suicide attempt on police record for ‘bringing shame and dishonor upon his house.’ Fortunately, the police got there before anything permanent could happen, after they received an anonymous tip.”

“Which was you,” Adrien said, guilt washing over him. He’d thought he was close to his fencing instructor, and he’d never realized….

“Nobody blames you, Adrien,” Natalie assured him, laying a hand on his shoulder. “The magic you wield is enough to keep Paris going, and to fix more damages than we could ever repair on our own. The fact that it comes with a timer is simply a necessary evil.”

“Still…,” he said miserably. He took a deep breath and looked up at her. “What was the third reason?”

Natalie’s hand dropped off his shoulder and she looked uncomfortable for a moment before regaining her composure.

“Your mother was a dear friend of mine for many years,” she said quietly. “So I was not entirely against your father’s plan of bringing her back.”

“Oh,” Adrien said quietly. He was still having trouble processing that fact. His father had been trying to bring Mom back… the whole time. Still, he was pretty sure he knew his father well enough to know…. “He wasn’t planning on giving up the Miraculous afterwards, though, was he,” he said resignedly. It wasn’t a question.

“Power is seductive,” Natalie said, shrugging. “It’s hard to give up something like that. For instance, you still have no intention of giving up your ring, do you? Even though Hawkmoth has been defeated.”

“There’s still an enemy!” Adrien protested, fingering his ring protectively.

“An enemy that you, in particular, are not well-suited for,” Natalie pointed out. “Against a single supervillain, the Cat Miraculous will always come out on top. But, unless you plan on turning all of Paris into a wasteland, your Cataclysm will not be useful against a bunch of random butterflies.”

“But—”

“But you _would_ make a terrifyingly-dangerous villain if one of them gets a hold of you,” Natalie added, narrowing her eyes. “Which is why I must insist you stay home as much as possible until this threat is over. No school, no dates, and I can arrange for your instructors—”

“What?!” Adrien exclaimed. “But Natalie—”

“It’s only temporary,” Natalie insisted. “Please, Adrien. I was not able to help your mother, or to save your father from himself. At least let me protect _you_ to the best of my ability.”

“By putting me back in a cage?!”

“I have no doubt that a new hero will appear soon,” Natalie said firmly. “One better-suited to this situation. Once they appear to have things in hand, everything will go back to normal. Just be patient for now. Think of it as a well-earned vacation.”

“A vacation from _my life_,” Adrien grumbled, stomping up the stairs. He’d lived with Natalie long enough to know when she’d made up her mind. And he couldn’t deny she made some good points. Still, it didn’t stop him from slamming his bedroom door shut behind him.

“UGH!!” he screamed, as Plagg swooped up to face him. “I’m so sick of this! I’m a superhero, and everyone’s treating me like a baby!!”

Plagg regarded him for a moment. “So, whatcha gonna do about it?” he asked curiously.

“Do? What _can_ I do about it?!” Adrien moaned, flopping face down on his bed.

“A lot,” his kwami snorted. “Listen to me, kid. I’ve had wielders who had jobs or even families at your age! Don’t tell _me_ what can’t be done! I’m the incarnation of destruction and bad luck, and my Cats have always made it work! So, Adrien, what’s _really_ holding you back?”

“My stupid, dysfunctional family,” Adrien grumbled into his pillow.

“And?”

“And the fact that I’m a kid who has to do whatever they say. Photoshoots. Fencing. Chinese!”

“Really…,” Plagg said slyly. Adrien raised his head to look at the black cat questioningly. “You _have_ to do those things?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, unless I want to run away….”

“I think we can both safely assume that you wouldn’t last one night on the streets,” Plagg laughed. “Not to mention you wouldn’t have anything to feed _me_, and then you couldn’t even transform.”

“So, what are you getting at??” Adrien asked, sitting up.

“Look around,” Plagg said, indicating his room. “Anybody who looked at all this would say you’re pretty lucky, wouldn’t they?”

“I guess so.”

“So, you’ve got a lot to start with,” Plagg pointed out. “And as someone who’s lived with bad luck for eons, I can tell you: it’s not about focusing on the bad. It’s about making it work for you. Don’t think about what you can’t do. Think about what you _can_!”

Adrien bit his lip, his mind racing.

“I know you like to be the nice guy,” Plagg added. “But if you want to take control of your life, you’re gonna have to show them all that you’re not the baby they’re treating you like. You know what you want, right?”

Adrien nodded, Marinette’s face flashing before his eyes. He wanted to be with her. Which was looking less and less likely by the minute under Natalie’s ‘care.’ He wanted to help Ladybug. He wanted to be with his friends at school. To be _in charge_ of his own schedule for once.

“Then I’ll ask again. What’s holding you back? What part of all _this_,” the kwami said, indicating the huge room, “is actually holding you back??”

Adrien narrowed his eyes, thinking.

“And _what can you do about it_??” Plagg pressed, sniggering at the determined look that appeared on his Cat’s face.

“I’ll need… my computer and my phone… no, wait, first I need something in front of my door to make sure I have a warning if anyone’s coming in…,” Adrien said, springing into action. “I just need a few hours… and… I think I’ll need your help,” he added, looking imploringly up at Plagg.

“Keep me well-fed and you’d be surprised how helpful I can be,” Plagg grinned. Adrien grinned right back.

A couple hours later found them finishing up their last emails (and Plagg’s latest wedge of camembert). They’d only been interrupted once, for lunch, and Natalie hadn’t questioned it when Adrien had simply said he was emailing his friends, telling them he wouldn’t be in school. Now, he was exhausted, and Plagg was dozing happily on his head.

“Plagg,” the blond yawned. “I think we need to talk more about that whole taking-control-of-your-dreams thing again. I’ll need it here soon. I’m gonna be taking a nap whether I want to or not.”

“Just focus on purging the evil energy in your system,” Plagg said lazily. “Your dreams will take the form of whatever your mind thinks is your greatest foe, and then you can fight it and destroy the evil inside. Just remember that you’re in control at all times. You can wake up whenever you want to.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Adrien said, rolling his eyes. He eyed his bed again with trepidation, and grabbed a nearby waste basket, just in case.

* * *

Meanwhile, Marinette was awakened from her own nap by her best friend, who started sobbing and ran to her to throw her arms around her.

“Marinette, Marinette!” Alya cried, holding her tightly. “I thought I’d never see you again! I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry!!”

“I’m happy to see you too, Alya,” Marinette managed to gasp out, “but why are you apologizing??”

“It’s my fault! It’s all my fault!! I was the last one to talk to you, and I didn’t even notice anything was wrong!! And then that picture!! Oh, if I’d never posted that stupid picture of you and Cat Noir—”

Marinette started laughing.

“It is, most definitely, not your fault,” she said firmly, taking her friend’s tear-stained face in her hands. “I wasn’t even inside the bakery when we hung up, so there’s no way you could’ve known something was wrong! _I_ didn’t know anything was wrong at that point!”

“But, the—”

“The picture? The picture was on the early morning news! Remember, Miss-I’m-Gonna-Scream-At-You-At-Six-In-The-Morning??” Marinette said, giving her bestie a dry stare. She bopped Alya playfully on the nose, earning a smile. “Not your fault, Alya. Besides, Ladybug and Cat Noir saved the day, like they always do.”

Alya sniffled and wiped her face. “I—I need all the details about that, by the way.”

_I knew she’d fall for that distraction. _Marinette settled herself in for some epic storytelling. She was glad she and Adrien had already thought up a good story.

“Ok, well, first off, I woke up tied to a chair in the Evil Villain Lair—”

“OMG, WHAT WAS IT LIKE??”

“Totally creepy!” Marinette said, really getting into it. “Cold, dark, you could hear voices echo off the walls… and the only light was through this huge window with a butterfly symbol on it!!”

“Holy cow! Doesn’t think much of himself, does he,” Alya said sarcastically.

“Absolutely arrogant,” Marinette agreed. “And, guess what? He thought _I_ was _Ladybug_!”

“WHAT??” Alya exclaimed. Marinette nodded solemnly, keeping her eyes wide and innocent. Fortunately, she and Alya had already had this conversation, otherwise she never would’ve let that little tidbit drop. But she knew exactly what her friend would say now.

“But you’re too short to be Ladybug!”

“I know, right?” Marinette agreed, pretending not to hear Tikki giggling from where she and Nooroo were hiding.

“And your hair isn’t long enough! No offense, girl, you totally rock the pigtails, but still! It’s definitely not the same length as _hers_.”

“Exactly!!”

“OMG, so what happened?!”

“Okay, well, it was really dark, so I couldn’t get all the details, but….”


	5. Consequences… of Ill-Made Decisions.

It didn’t take much for Marinette to convince Alya to go with her to the park. Convincing Sabine, however….

“No.”

“Oh, please, Maman,” Marinette begged. “It’s just across the street! I’ve been cooped up all day!”

“And for good reason!”

Marinette sighed and shot her mother a look. “You do realize I was kidnapped while I was _inside_ the house, right?” she said.

“By perpetrators who are still at-large!” Sabine continued arguing.

“Please, Mama,” Marinette pleaded, pouting a little. “Alya will be with me the whole time!”

“That’s right, ma’am, and I’ll drop-kick anyone who comes at Marinette!” Alya put in, throwing a few punches into the air. “You can count on me!”

Sabine still looked unsure, glancing at her husband for support. Tom sighed.

“Fine, but just for a few minutes,” he said. “And if either of you see any black butterflies, you’re to run straight home, you hear me?!” he added, shaking a finger at them.

The two girls quickly agreed and ran out the door before her parents could change their minds.

“All right, girl, spill,” Alya said as soon as they got inside the park, “what’s the real reason why you wanted to fly the coop?”

_Well, I was originally hoping to lose you at some point and go see what the situation is like as Ladybug, but I think both you and my parents will lose your minds and/or kill me if I do that, so…._

“Mom and Dad are keeping it a secret from me, but I gotta know, Alya,” Marinette pleaded, “how bad are the akumas around town? Really?”

“Well….”

“Alya, please!” she begged. “It’s partially my fault because I got kidnapped by Hawkmoth! Ladybug and Cat Noir had to come save me, and now there’s butterflies everywhere but no Ladybug or Cat Noir—”

“WHOA, whoa!” Alya cried. “This is not your fault, M! I’m sure Ladybug and Cat Noir are just taking a well-earned rest after kicking Hawkmoth’s evil butt! And yeah, sure, the butterflies are everywhere, but it’s really not so bad! I got transformed into Lady Wifi twice on my way to your house, and I’m just fine!”

Marinette stared at her friend, aghast. “Twice?!”

“I’m fine! I’m fine!” Alya reassured her. “It was mostly just annoying, to be honest. One minute I was thinking about that new electronics shop downtown where the manager gave me the runaround, and the next, I’m actually _there_ and floating above their display. The look on the manager’s face was priceless!”

Marinette felt sick. “And the second time?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know.

“Well, _now_ I was all the way downtown,” Alya explained, biting her lip. “So, that was annoying. And I just figured I’d use it, you know? I started remembering all the bad things that got me transformed the first time, and sure enough, here comes a little black butterfly and soon I could teleport through phones again! I kept going though random ones until I got close to your house (which made me happy), and poof! little butterfly flies away and I’m back to normal.”

“Alya,” Marinette said weakly. “Promise me you won’t ever do that again.”

“It’s really not so bad once you get used to it,” Alya said shrugging.

“I mean it!”

“So do I! Look, without Hawkmoth powering them up, we don’t even get overwhelmed by bad feelings like before!” Alya exclaimed. “I can totally remember what it feels like to travel through the web, (and let me tell you, it is sooo cool)—

“Alya.”

“—and I can freeze things and un-freeze them whenever I want—”

“Alya!”

“—and OMG, livestreaming has never been so easy! Just a flick of my wrist and—”

“ALYA!” Marinette shouted. Alya finally stopped her tirade to look at her friend. “You can’t transform again! What if you lose your powers mid-transfer and end up trapped in cyber space or something?? And akuma magic… it builds up inside you! Lady—Ladybug told me so.” (Actually, it had been Tikki who explained it, but same difference, right?) “Please. You can’t let it take you over again!”

“Aww,” Alya looked disappointed. Marinette could only hope that the word of her superhero idol would be enough to keep her from trying it. “And here I was hoping to see what kind of akuma you turned into!”

Marinette stared at the other girl, her eye twitching and her stomach churning uncomfortably. Alya laughed at her expression.

“I just mean, we never got to see what kind of villain you’d become! Or what name you’d get! Adrien made a whole game about it just before—well, before we heard about you,” she said, finishing awkwardly.

Marinette couldn’t help the weak laugh that escaped her. “Yeah, that sounds like something he’d do.”

“Speaking of…,” Alya said, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. “You didn’t really tell me much about lover boy’s role in your kidnapping.”

“I told you, he spent most of the time trying to convince his father’s akuma to let me go and help Ladybug and Cat Noir!”

“Aww, c’mon, no declarations of love? No long, heartfelt goodbyes when you both were sure it was the end?”

Marinette blushed before she could stop herself. Too bad. Alya caught it.

“No. Way! You did it?! You told him??” she exclaimed.

“I may have said the words… under duress from an evil villain…,” Marinette said slowly, carefully. Alya squealed excitedly. And then suddenly froze as she looked around.

“M,” she said slowly, “you’re not really upset about confessing to Adrien, are you?”

“What? No!” her friend laughed nervously. “I mean, it’s awkward now, for sure, and I’m not quite sure what to do anymore—Alya?” Marinette finally noticed her friend’s ashen look.

She followed her gaze… to see a swarm of black butterflies headed straight for them.

“RUN!” she screamed at Alya, grabbing her hand for good measure and pulling her towards the bakery. Alya snapped out of it and ran with her, both of them sprinting as fast as they could go.

No good.

Another swarm descended in front of them.

“All right, M, you head for the bakery. I’ll hold them off,” Alya shouted, attempting to shield her friend as the akumas got closer.

“I am NOT leaving you out here all alone!” Marinette screamed back, unable to stop shaking. Visions swam in her head—of akumas chasing her, diving through her shield, each touch giving her a flare of madness as she played right into Hawkmoth’s hands…. She sank to her knees, covering her head.

_I will not transform. I will **not** transform. _

_I will not give them that satisfaction. _

_That power. _

_I will rip the earrings out of my ears if I have to. _

_I will not hurt Alya. I will not hurt Adrien. I will not become that evil Ladybug I saw in my dreams. _

_They may take Marinette. They can have Marinette. But they will **not** have LADYBUG!!_

“Marinette! Marinette!” she heard Alya calling. “Listen to me! Don’t fight it! It doesn’t last long and I’ll be right here with you, protecting you!”

_No._

_I have to fight._

_Alya, please, you have to fight._

_“An akuma’s magic is insidious... It gets into your system and exploits any and all negative emotions that you might have….”_

_You’re being used, Alya._

_Please. _

_Please, fight._

“Oh yeah, here we go again!” Alya’s voice sounded excited.

_No!_

_Somebody save us!!_

“GET _DOWN_, YOU IDIOT!!” a new voice screamed.

Marinette gasped and looked up. All she saw was a yellow flash and suddenly, the akumas surrounding them were vaporized. Marinette blinked.

_Was that a… a top?_

A clearly-akumatized-looking person dressed in yellow stripes landed in front of them. She wound her weapon back up, (_yup, that was clearly a top,_) and tossed her ponytail.

“Get inside and stay there, you morons,” she ordered, pointing towards the bakery. “They can’t go inside homes.” Then, before either Marinette or Alya could reply, she flew off again.

Marinette and Alya gaped at each other for a moment.

“Alya,” Marinette said slowly. “I never thought I’d say this, but did we just get saved by an akuma?”

* * *

_His steel-toed boots clicked on the stone beneath his feet. _Just a dream_, Cat Noir reminded himself firmly_. Just a dream and _you_ are in control. Nothing is going to happen that you don’t want to—

_And then he saw who was waiting for him._

Nothing will happen unless he wanted it to, huh? Well, then, he might just be a masochist. How else did he explain….

_“Hello, Adrien.”_

_He sighed. “Hello, Father,” he said, resigned to his fate. He looked up at the man hopefully. “Is it really you? Are you really here?”_

_Gabriel Agreste gave him an amused glance. “Why do I get the feeling that you’ll try to hit me with that stick of yours if I say yes?”_

_Cat Noir shrugged. “Guilty conscious?”_

_His father gave a sharp laugh, before turning back to the window before them. “I’ll have to give you that,” he chuckled. Cat Noir hadn’t even noticed the scenery until now, but they were definitely back in the Evil Villain Lair™. _Not the best place for memories_, he thought, shuddering._

_“You’re not transformed,” Cat said, looking his father up and down._

_“Hawkmoth was destroyed,” Gabriel said calmly. He glanced at his son. “You saw to that.”_

_“I did what I had to,” Cat Noir replied calmly, proud that his voice didn’t shake. _

_“Fair enough,” Gabriel said. “So, did you just come here to talk?”_

_“Well, yeah, I guess? I mean, unless you really want me to hit you instead…,” his son muttered. He took a deep breath. “I honestly don’t know why I’m here. My kwami said my dreams would take whatever form I needed to purge the evil from my system.” He eyed his father. “Typical that it’d be you.”_

_“Ahhh, looking for closure.”_

_“Looking to get rid of your stupid butterflies,” Cat Noir corrected. “They’re all over town. Any suggestions?”_

_“That’s **your** job now.”_

_“Whatever,” Cat said, plopping himself on the ground. He didn’t want to be here. Especially not with this guy._

_For a few moments, they were both silent, looking out the large window of the atrium._

_“Is it sad that, even though I know I need to… and I probably won’t get to talk to you like this ever again… I still don’t want to talk to you?” the superhero finally asked, swallowing a lump in his throat._

_“It’s sad that I would expect nothing less,” Gabriel answered, not looking back at him._

_“Mom would be so mad at us,” Cat Noir said, shaking his head._

_“I thought you didn’t want to talk about that?”_

_“Yeah, well, the silence is gonna drive me crazy quicker than **you** ever could, sooo…,” Cat said, rolling his eyes and fishing for a not-so-emotional topic. “What have I always wanted to ask Hawkmoth? Hmmm…. Ah! Mr. Pigeon.”_

_“Ugh, don’t remind me…,” his father groaned, his rigid posture melting away as he slumped down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Cat Noir grinned._

_“I gotta ask: why?”_

_Gabriel shot his son a wry smile. “I’m not **that** evil, Adrien. You’ll notice I didn’t akumatize people who would’ve been a legitimate threat to Paris. No murderers, rapists, pedophiles, arsonists—”_

_“You did manage to get a burglar in there,” Cat Noir pointed out._

_Gabriel acknowledged the point. “I knew I’d need something extra for the final confrontation with you two. Still, a bank robber, only interested in money? I figured Money Bags would be safe enough.”_

_“They still haven’t found him and Volpina.”_

_“Then you and Ladybug will have to deal with them later. I can’t exactly take their powers away like this. But, getting back to Mr. Pigeon. He was my first and only attempt to akumatize someone who was… shall we say, not in a clinically-sound mind.”_

_Cat raised an eyebrow. “He’s psychotic?”_

_“Delusional, I think, is the medical term,” Gabriel corrected with a frown. “But relatively harmless. That is, until I gave him extra powers to feed his delusions. The akuma he became was far more powerful than I had anticipated. I honestly thought you two would have no trouble with him. Then he was suddenly able to make airplanes out of pigeons.”_

_“You also didn’t count on my allergies.”_

_“Well, I didn’t know it was you back then,” Gabriel pointed out. “And not many people have a weakness like that.” He gave a small laugh that didn’t go unnoticed by his son. “I suppose I should tell you… you and Ladybug may need this information later anyway… there’s a reason why you have that particular allergy.”_

_Cat Noir sat up straighter, blinking at his father._

_“Your mother, as you might’ve guessed, held the Peacock Miraculous,” Gabriel said slowly. “She used it for many years, keeping Paris safe from villains and monsters; not even stopping when she met and married me. However, that fool of a Guardian failed to warn her about one thing: that female Miraculous users are not supposed to use their powers while pregnant.”_

_“Why would I need to know—Oh,” Cat blushed. “Father, Ladybug and I….”_

_“Are still young,” Gabriel nodded in acknowledgment. “Children, really. (And I really should have a conversation with that man about child soldiers someday, but….) It may come up later. I’m hardly blind to the way you look at her, Adrien.” He gave his son a sideways smile, but Cat Noir just looked away, biting his lip. _

_“Anyway, your mother didn’t know about this taboo, and her kwami has usually chosen boys in the past, so she didn’t know either. I guess the magic affected you, to the point where you were struggling to breathe when you were born.” He grimaced. “It took us months to figure out what was wrong. And poor Duusu. She cried so hard when she found out she couldn’t go near the baby….” Gabriel gave him a small, sad smile._

_“So, I have a feather allergy because Mom had the Peacock Miraculous?” Cat Noir asked. His father nodded. Cat took a moment to process this. Then he drew in a deep breath and decided to just go for it._

_“Father, what did she do? I can’t believe **Mom** was evil. But there’s no way Tikki and Plagg would agree to imprison someone without good cause.”_

_Gabriel pursed his lips. “She was attempting to create another Miraculous. One to counter-balance her own, as the Ladybug Earrings counter the Cat Ring. Yin and Yang. With it, she would’ve increased her own power exponentially, and gained a powerful ally, all at once.”_

_“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Cat Noir said, frowning. His father just gave him a helpless shrug that said he agreed. “What went wrong?”_

_“I guess the deity she was attempting to turn into a kwami didn’t agree with her, or her methods,” his father said. “I never got all the details. I do know it threatened to turn the world to ashes if the Ladybug and Cat Noir before you didn’t agree to imprison her forever. You can guess which decision they made.”_

_“A deity?” Cat repeated, his eyes bugging out. Gabriel chuckled._

_“Kwamis were all originally intangible forces of nature. Creation, destruction, generosity, illusions, dreams and beauty… that sort of thing. The more they interact with our world, the more power they must give up in order to become part of it. To become actual kwamis, they give up nearly all of their power and place it in a Miraculous stone, to be used by a chosen human, whom they then serve.”_

_“But why would they agree to that?” Cat Noir asked, bewildered._

_“They didn’t,” Gabriel said softly. “Most of the kwamis we know now were captured and forced to give up their powers for humanity.”_

_“How?”_

_“If I knew that,” Gabriel chuckled, “I’d have been locked up with your mother in her prison.”_

_“Speaking of…,” Cat said slowly, “you mentioned before that you had it. The prison. Where…?”_

_“Oh, Adrien, I know you’ve seen it,” Gabriel said, smiling. “You’re the one who stole the book from my vault, after all. They put her inside her own Miraculous.”_

_Cat Noir’s eyes went wide. The pin. The pin shaped like a peacock next to his mother’s picture…._

_“She’s been so close… this whole time?” he gulped. His father nodded._

_“I won’t ask you to free her,” he said softly. “My gamble in this game has been lost. But, if you ever loved her, take care of her for me, won’t you?” Cat swallowed again and nodded. _

_Gabriel smiled in satisfaction and turned back to the window. “How is Nooroo?” he finally asked quietly._

_“He sleeps a lot,” Cat Noir said, picking at some imaginary threads on his suit. “Plagg and Tikki just keep saying he’ll need time.”_

_Gabriel snorted and roll his eyes. “Time….”_

_His son looked at him sharply. “You think they’re lying?”_

_“Well, they aren’t telling you the whole truth,” his father said. “Time, yes, he’ll need time. As in, he’ll have to wait until I die. Which, admittedly, shouldn’t be long—”_

_“What do you mean??” Cat Noir cried, standing up. “Ladybug saved you! Her Lucky Charm brought you back to life!!”_

_“She is merely prolonging the inevitable,” Gabriel scoffed. His son blinked and took a step back._

_“Plagg said you’d have to—you… Wait. You won’t let go of the part of you that’s Hawkmoth,” he realized. “Your powers—That’s why Nooroo is always asleep. You’re draining him, even now!!”_

_“My powers as Hawkmoth were the only chance I had of seeing your mother ever again,” Gabriel said simply. “Right now, not even death will reunite us. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to give them up willingly.” He finally turned to fully face his son. “Look at me and tell me, Adrien, that if someone told you that you’d never see your Ladybug again, you wouldn’t do everything on this Earth to get her back.” _

_Cat Noir paled and looked away. “I’d-I’d find a way—”_

_“Look behind you,” Gabriel ordered. Against his will, Cat Noir did. His eyes widened as he saw the scene from before, frozen in front of him. Hawkmoth’s back to him, cane raised, with Ladybug lying helplessly on the floor. Even though he knew it wasn’t real, he cried out and reached for her._

_“Tell me, Adrien,” his father said softly behind him, “that when faced with losing her, your first instinct wasn’t to destroy **anything** and **everything** that threatened to take her away.” Cat felt his eyes start to burn. “Even me. Even your own father.”_

_“I’m sorry!” Cat Noir cried out, spinning around and throwing his arms around his father. He buried his face in the other man’s chest. “I’m so—”_

_“Don’t be sorry,” Gabriel said, hugging him back. “I should’ve known better. That’s **love**. That’s the same love I felt for your mother. The love that drove me to darkness; to attack a whole city—” He took a deep breath and pulled away from the superhero, just enough to grip his arms and look into his eyes. “I know why the kwamis sent you here. They want to make sure that same darkness doesn’t consume you. They want me to warn you….” He nodded, his eyes hardening._

_“So I have. And here’s my warning, Adrien: don’t ever be afraid to love.”_

_Cat Noir’s eyes widened, and the whole scene was plunged into darkness._

* * *

Adrien woke with a gasp.

Eyes burning, he forced himself to breathe until his stomach stopped churning. Thankfully, he didn’t need the waste basket this time.

_I can’t wait to get the rest of this dark energy out of me,_ he thought ruefully, sitting up in bed and wiping his eyes. It had gotten late enough to be dark outside. His nap must’ve taken longer than he’d meant it to.

Only then did he notice Plagg.

The kwami was hovering over his bed, facing the door and growling.

“Plagg?” Adrien called softly. The kwami seemed to snap out of it for a moment and he looked at his charge. His ears were still flat against his head though, and his tail was thrashing erratically behind him.

“He’s here,” Plagg growled, turning towards the door again.

“Who’s here?” Adrien asked, quietly getting up and straightening his clothes and shoes. He had a feeling he was gonna need to be ready for whatever was on the other side of that door.

“My least favorite person in the world,” Plagg muttered.

“Oh, is my father home?” Adrien quipped, wincing a bit at his own bad humor. Plagg just shot him a wry grin.

“Worse,” he said. The kwami sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, kid, I don’t like to do this, but it’s decision time. Are you really ready to grow up and take responsibility for your life?—Gah, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I sound like _Tikki_….”

“After all that work we did today, I would hope so,” Adrien said, folding his arms.

“This is bigger than that. There’s a huge difference between hoping, and planning, and actually _doing_ something,” Plagg said, floating into his face. “So…,” the kwami took another deep breath. “Unless you want your mother’s Miraculous to disappear forever, I suggest you embrace the badass the darkness was trying to turn you into.”

Adrien gaped at him.

“WHAT? Plagg, you want me to—that’s crazy!—I could never—what are you…. Wait, what do you mean, it’ll disappear forever??” he asked, wide-eyed.

“Your answers are out there,” Plagg said, nodding at the door. “But I gotta warn you. If you go out there acting like a pansy, you’re gonna lose everything. Probably even me.”

Adrien followed his gaze and licked his lips. Was he really ready to do this? _His mother’s Miraculous… his mother!_ He took a deep breath and clenched his fists.

“Should I transform?” he asked quietly.

“Better not,” Plagg said, swooping over to his shoulder. “I can help you navigate through the BS they’ll try to throw at you. Let’s put it like this, kid. Yours appears to be the worst-kept secret in this house.”

Adrien squared his shoulders and opened the door.

The Gorilla looked surprised to see him. The big guy glanced downstairs and quickly stepped into Adrien’s way to the stairs, shaking his head.

Now Adrien understood what his kwami had meant. Words would mean nothing if he didn’t try to back it up. He closed his eyes, reaching inside for that coil of power that had made his stomach churn earlier…

And breathed out.

_No. This wasn’t him. He had to **try** to negotiate first._

“I don’t want to fight you,” he said softly to the man who’d guarded him and stood behind him for years. “But I’m pretty sure there’s something down there that I need to see for myself. Please don’t stand in my way.”

The Gorilla hesitated for a moment, and then, to Adrien’s surprise, he stepped aside and nodded, laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder just long enough to be supportive instead of restraint. Then, he closed Adrien’s bedroom door so gently it didn’t make a sound and took up his post beside it again, looking for all the world like nothing had happened.

“Thank you,” Adrien said. He peeked downstairs, keeping his body low and trying to stay out of sight until he knew what he was dealing with.

Natalie was at the door, talking with someone just outside. Adrien strained his ears, but despite the room’s awesome echoing capabilities, he couldn’t hear a thing.

“Plagg,” he whispered. “Could you give me Cat Noir’s hearing ability? Just for a moment—oh, thanks!” The conversation downstairs was suddenly very easy to listen in on.

“You should’ve been here yesterday,” Natalie was saying, not even bothering to hide her irritation. “We could’ve saved him—”

“Nobody could’ve saved him,” a male voice replied. Adrien started. He knew that voice! He hadn’t heard it over a year, but— “Gabriel was too powerful. He was always that way.”

“And what about Adrien?!” Natalie exclaimed. She glanced up towards Adrien’s room and the blond quickly made sure he was completely hidden. Above him, the Gorilla nodded at her firmly, as though nothing was wrong. He didn’t give any indication that Adrien was out of his room, much less listening to every word. “Do you have any idea what he’s had to go through?!”

“I admit, I didn’t expect Gabriel to move that quickly,” the man said. “But I expect he’ll pull through. The kid’s always been stronger than people give him credit for. Especially with you looking out for him. Right, Bri?”

Adrien felt his heart stop for a moment. _Bri? Wait… _A casual conversation with Plagg and Tikki popped into his head. Two names thrown out that he’d automatically memorized as easily as any of his homework. But that meant—_oh._

“My name is Natalie,” she snapped.

“Fine. Whatever,” the man chuckled. “I love the red streak, by the way. Very nostalgic.”

“Shut up and get in here.”

“Why? If it all already went down, what possible use could you have for me, O fearless leader?”

Despite the man’s protests, the door clicked shut before he finished speaking. Their voices started moving towards the study.

Adrien remained still, despite wanting to grab Plagg and demand answers. He knew who they were now. He’d known the moment that man had opened his mouth. He should’ve realized a long time ago. And oh God, it all made sense… the pieces all fit…. _He would not hyperventilate. He would not hyperventilate!_

“He found it,” Natalie hissed, making a point of keeping her voice down now. “I don’t know how, but he found it and he’s been keeping it here!”

“WHAT!” the man exclaimed, hurrying after her. “How in the world could he possibly—?”

“I don’t know! All I know is one day it was there, staring me in the face! And I couldn’t do a thing about it because he was already so Gods-be-damned powerful and I had nothing!!”

“Why didn’t you call for me sooner?! Or even tell the new superheroes! You know, the ones who’re _supposed_ to take him down??”

“I couldn’t—”

It was getting harder to hear them. They were in the study now, and Adrien was afraid he knew exactly what they were after. He padded down the stairs, trying not to make a sound. He stopped just outside his father’s office door. His stomach dropped as he heard the tell-tale creak of the portrait opening.

“…What do you want me to do with it?”

“Take it. Hide it. Someplace safe. Somewhere no one will find it. We can’t risk it falling into the wrong hands and I can’t—Oh, no! Duusu! She must’ve woken up during that power surge!”

Suddenly Adrien heard a wail that was both unfamiliar and yet….

“GO AWAY! GO AWAY, HAVEN’T YOU TWO DONE ENOUGH??”

“Oh, Duusu, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry,” Natalie was crooning. Adrien’s breath caught again.

Duusu.

_“…poor Duusu. She cried so hard when she found out she couldn’t go near the baby….” _

Duusu. His mother’s kwami.

_“…if you ever loved her, take care of her for me, won’t you?”_

Even as his eyes filled with tears again, Adrien clenched his hands into fists.

“This could be a good thing, Bri. If she can transform you—”

“Do you think she can, with Emilie still trapped inside?” Natalie asked, sounding hopeful.

“Only one way to find out.”

_“**NO**!!” _

He wasn’t sure who shouted louder, him or the kwami. But his time for hiding was past. Blood roaring in his ears, Adrien stepped into the room.

“Put down my mother’s Miraculous, Natalie,” he ordered, his voice shaking. He glared at the blond man beside her. “And Uncle Felix. How nice to see you again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember that my Natalie does NOT have the same goals or motivations of the Nathalie currently in canon, and the Felix here is most definitely not what we were given in Season 3. I wrote all of this before Season 2 came out, and while I've changed and added some things, there were parts I didn't want to touch. (Like the GabeNath romance. If you're here for that, sorry, this is not the fic for you.)


	6. Consequences… of Old Friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY. I got caught up in everything and forgot to update. I AM SO SORRY.

Adrien glared at the two adults standing in front of him, not sure who he wanted to yell at first. His uncle took a step forward, drawing his attention. Felix glanced from him to the kwami still riding on his shoulder for all to see. Plagg waved, snickering. Adrien was glad to see his uncle twitched a bit.

“Hey, kiddo,” the man said, sounding a lot calmer than Adrien felt. “Good to see you. You’ve grown.”

“It’d be nicer to see _you_ if you weren’t trying to rob me,” Adrien snarked. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

“Put it _down_, Natalie,” he growled, noticing that his uncle had neatly stepped between him and the woman he was about ready to tear apart. She froze, but didn’t let go of the pin, and he clenched his teeth. _How many secrets had she kept from him? How many times could she have helped?? Given them clues? Hints?? ANYTHING??_

“Adrien,” Natalie said, regaining her composure and straightening, “this doesn’t concern you—”

“It DOESN’T CONCERN ME?!” Adrien shouted, his rage spiking. “YOU’RE HOLDING THE ONE THING I HAVE LEFT OF MY MOTHER!!”

“Listen, kid. Adrien,” Felix said, holding up his hands and trying to calm everybody down. “There are bigger forces in play here, but believe me, we are on your side—”

“ON MY SIDE??” Adrien repeated, incredulous. “YOU TWO IMPRISONED MY MOTHER FOREVER!!”

Felix paled. “H-How much did Gabriel tell you?”

“Enough,” Adrien spat. “Enough for me to figure things out as soon as I heard your voice! Is _this_ why you haven’t been around since she disappeared? Couldn’t face us, knowing what you did?!”

“Adrien, you don’t understand,” Natalie protested. “You don’t know what—”

“And you were never gonna tell me. Right?” Adrien interrupted. She looked away, which just made him madder. “I’m not gonna ask nicely again, Natalie. _Bridgette_. Whatever the hell your name is. Put my mother’s pin down and step away from the painting.”

He didn’t know how he caught it. It was just a glance between the two adults. But he _did_ catch it. And it reminded him so much of working with Ladybug. How he always knew exactly what she wanted him to do, with nothing more than a look or a few words.

He caught it, realized, and was moving even before they were.

He bounded back a couple steps, out of reach of Felix, who stumbled a bit when his prey slipped away from his sudden lunge. Reaching inside himself, Adrien had no more inhibitions. He focused on that twisted feeling in his gut… and _pulled_.

Just as his uncle lunged for him again, the door beside them opened in his face, hitting him hard. Adrien let out a surprised laugh as the Gorilla stood there in the doorway, looking behind it to see what he’d hit.

_I could get used to having bad luck as a power!_

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Natalie pin the Peacock Miraculous just above her heart. Duusu let out a mournful sob. Rage boiled inside him.

“_Duusu, tr—”_

He wasn’t sure how it happened. All of sudden, Cat Noir’s baton was in his hand, already extending itself to smash into the wall right beside Natalie’s head. She stared at him in shock, the words dying on her tongue. Her glasses slipped off her nose and her hair fell out of its carefully-arranged bun. She suddenly looked a lot younger than he’d ever thought, but he had no more mercy left.

“If you _DARE_ tell _my mother’s kwami_ to transform you, I will _END_ you,” Adrien snarled.

Faintly, he was aware of a strange wind whipping around him, and from the horrified stares of the adults around him, he was pretty sure his eyes were glowing purple again. Marinette was gonna kill him.

_Marinette._

Just the thought of her was enough to make him take a breath and relax his grip on the baton. Obediently, the staff receded back to its shortest length. On his shoulder, Plagg took a deep breath and the baton vanished altogether. Adrien held out his hand to Natalie.

“Adrien…,” she began.

“Now, Natalie.”

Slowly, carefully, she took the pin off and stepped towards him. Felix tried to stand, but the Gorilla laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Natalie slowly, cautiously laid the Miraculous in Adrien’s open palm.

“I want you to know, we _are_ on the same side,” she said softly. “Everything I said before was true….”

“Yeah, you just omitted some details,” Adrien said, stepping away from her. He glanced at his uncle and then turned back to her. “A_ lot_ of details, Miss Former-Ladybug. How long have you been lying to my family, Natalie? Did my father know who you were when he hired you?”

She looked away and didn’t answer.

“And you expect me to trust you.” Adrien shook his head and headed out the door of the study, not waiting for an answer. Only once he was standing in the middle of the entryway did he look over at the little blue kwami who had tentatively followed him out of the room, looking shy but hopeful.

“Duusu, right?” he said gently. The little bird nodded enthusiastically. “I’m Adrien. I don’t know if you remember me—”

“Of course I do!” the little kwami chirped excitedly, looking like she was torn between zooming over to the boy for a hug and keeping her distance so her feathers didn’t affect Adrien’s allergies. “I’ve known you since you were a baby! How could I ever forget my sweet Melode’s golden chicky!!” Adrien smiled. Melode? That must’ve been his mother’s superhero name. It suited her.

“Hey, I’ll have you know he’s a Cat now, bird-brain!” Plagg growled, rising up to challenge the new kwami. “Don’t be calling him a chicky!!”

“Oh, it’s _you_,” Duusu said, disdain dripping from her voice as she looked the cat kwami up and down. “You really shouldn’t hang out with creatures like him, Adrien. He’ll make you smell bad.”

Adrien laughed as Plagg gave a half-hearted cry of outrage.

But they froze when they realized the adults he’d left behind were talking again.

“What the hell??” Uncle Felix was exclaiming. “Just how powerful is that kid??”

“I tried to tell you before, but—GAH! _You_ were supposed to be keeping an eye on him!! To warn me if he woke up!!” Natalie exclaimed. The Gorilla just grunted.

Adrien sighed and rolled his eyes at Plagg. “Remember how you once told me that being a grownup was just wishing you could go back to bed everyday? I think I’ve reached that point.”

His kwami snickered at him. “So, naptime?”

“Don’t I wish.”

“Then whatcha gonna do about it?”

“Obviously, not catch up with my mom’s old friend, that’s for sure,” he said, looking at Duusu with regret. “And I had so many questions for you too…. But I’m not gonna use the pin anytime soon, so….”

“I’ll go back to sleep!” Duusu chimed in eagerly. “That way you don’t have to worry about your allergies while you give those two a dressing down! I don’t like to leave her alone for too long anyway!”

Adrien choked. “So, she’s really in there?” he asked, staring at the pin in his hand. Duusu nodded.

“She’s asleep, waiting for someone to break the spell,” she said. Adrien sneezed and Duusu quickly floated backwards again. “Don’t worry. We can talk more about it later!” And with that, the little blue kwami dove into the pin, which immediately blossomed from a simple, silver flower into a beautiful, blue peacock fanning its tail. Adrien smiled at it for a moment before carefully tucking it in his pocket.

“—After all our years together, I can’t believe you would betray me like this!” Natalie was raging. Again, the Gorilla just grunted. “You’re fired!!”

“No, he’s not!” Adrien called loudly, turning and heading back into the study. After his outburst earlier, he felt remarkably calm and collected right now. As soon as he walked in, he noticed three things: Uncle Felix was still sitting down and still clutching his head, the Gorilla was smirking at him, and Natalie looked pissed, even if she was trying to compose herself.

“I think we’ve heard enough out of you, young man,” she said crisply, straightening her jacket.

“Well, you’re about to hear more,” Adrien said, feeling the dark magic from before coursing merrily through his veins. “Why don’t we all have supper together and discuss it?”

“There is nothing to discuss, Adrien,” Natalie said, her mask of indifference slowly coming back up. “Go to your room.”

Adrien crossed his arms and casually leaned back against the doorframe. He cocked his head at her and gave her an expectant look, enjoying the way her fist clenched at her side before she got it back under control. No words were needed, but they still hung in the air.

_Make me._

“Adrien…,” she started.

“With my father gone, that makes me head of this household,” Adrien said coolly. “And I want my bodyguard to stay.”

Natalie scoffed. “_Legally_, I am—”

“My guardian,” Adrien finished, nodding. “But do you know what the word ‘emancipated’ means, Natalie?”

She went white.

“It means, from how Plagg explained it, that I would be an adult in the eyes of the law,” Adrien said smoothly. “Which means… your guardian status would go down the drain.”

“You don’t know how…,” Natalie protested weakly.

“Not alone, I didn’t. But, you know, I’m never _really_ alone, am I?” He reached up to give Plagg a tiny fistbump. The kwami was snickering. “And, considering I can afford to pay Dad’s lawyer a lot more than you can, I think he’s gonna side with me on this one. Especially since I don’t give two figs about the company and I’d gladly hand it over to him for just a bit of freedom.”

“Adrien.” Natalie looked well-and-truly shaken.

“Of course, that means your job is in danger too, now doesn’t it?” Adrien exclaimed, pretending to be surprised. “Man, that’s too bad!”

“Ignore him, Bri,” Felix cut in, frowning at his nephew. “Just cut off his access to the phone and Internet until you can get everything squared away. Then you’ll be home free.”

“Too late,” Adrien grinned back. “I already contacted several people who would be willing to represent me this afternoon. If they don’t hear from me again by tomorrow, I’ve told them to assume you’ve illegally kidnapped me and are holding me against my will. The police might even get involved. I’m still a valuable witness to what happened to my father, after all.”

“It won’t work,” Natalie muttered to Felix. “He’s right, they’re already watching us.”

“You little creep,” Felix exclaimed, staring at Plagg in disbelief. “I can’t believe you actually paid attention to my law books when I was studying!!”

Plagg stuck his tongue out at his former master.

“Now, all that aside,” Adrien continued, sounding bored, “I don’t really _want_ to do any of that. Even with the lawyers handling most of the hard stuff, it sounds like a lot of hassle. And let’s face it, Natalie, you’re very good at your job. I don’t really want to cut you off. So, let’s have a truce, shall we? I don’t mess with you, you don’t mess with me. Deal?”

Natalie studied him for a moment, and then raised her head and nodded once.

“Deal,” she said. “On the condition that you also give up your ring.”

He snorted. “Not a chance.”

“Kid, I don’t think you quite understand what kind of powers you’re dealing with,” Felix cut in, staring Adrien down.

Adrien felt his temper flare again. “You’re right, I don’t,” he said casually. “But the last man who told me I didn’t understand, well, he tried to akumatize me not long afterwards with a whole fricking _storm_ of butterflies. So, you’ll have to forgive me if I happen to Cataclysm you in the back if you so much as look at me wrong.”

Felix paled and then cleared his throat nervously.

“_Adrien_, _buddy_, listen to me,” his uncle pleaded, holding up his hands in surrender. “I know I’ve been gone for a while, but I _know_ you! This isn’t you. You’ve gotta let the darkness go! Believe me, kid, you don’t wanna see how deep this rabbit hole goes. I’ve seen better people than you go over to the Dark Side. It’s not pretty.”

Something tugged on Adrien’s conscious, making him feel uneasy. _What…? He wasn’t giving into the darkness yet… Was he…? True, he wasn’t acting like he usually did, but that was only because he needed people to listen to him right now! It wasn’t because… wait, what was he saying again?_

“Let me help you,” Felix was saying, slowly approaching his nephew, “just give me the Miraculouses and I’ll get them back to Master Fu where they belong… then everything can go back to the way it was.”

Adrien felt strangely numb. He knew his uncle had taken his hand. He knew the man wanted the Cat Ring. But—_no, this was okay. The Bad Guy had been defeated. They could go back to their normal lives now. Just him and Marinette._

_Marinette._

The thought of her was hazy, like he was drowning… and the image seemed… _off_ somehow. _Did she have longer hair? No, no, that wasn’t right! None of this was right!!_

_Plagg, help me!!_ He screamed inside his own head.

Felix’s scream startled Adrien awake, and he shook his head to see that Plagg had sunk his little teeth into the man’s hand. Felix quickly shook him off, stumbling back.

“You interfering little—"

“I had my stint with you,” Plagg snarled back, swooping back to hide on Adrien’s shoulder. “You may have become a bit less of a stiff-shirt than you were back then, but you still haven’t learned what you needed to!!”

“Which is?” Felix asked, still clutching his hand as he glared at the kwami.

“Compassion, for one!” Plagg yelled, his tail thrashing angrily behind him. “It isn’t all about _you_! Here’s your _nephew_, who just had to face off against _his dad_ trying to take over his mind, and you go and try to hit him with a glamour!”

“A glamour?” Adrien repeated staring at the kwami.

“Mind trick,” Plagg explained. “It felt foggy, right? Like you’d just woken up and you couldn’t remember what you’d been dreaming about?”

“Yeah. Wait, that was you??” Adrien exclaimed, pointing at his uncle.

“It was one of his inherited powers,” Plagg said, still scowling at his former holder.

“I am _trying_ to help,” Felix grit out. “You don’t need that ring anymore, Adrien, and I know how hard it is to give it up—”

“Oh, don’t even start!!” Natalie and Plagg shouted together, turning on his uncle.

“Look, I had my problems with the ring,” Felix admitted. “And they mostly stemmed from that little shit—” He pointed at Plagg. “But I was trying to—”

“I don’t think you quite understood me when I threatened to Cataclysm you earlier,” Adrien snarled, stalking closer to his uncle.

“Adrien, just listen to yourself for a moment…,” Felix warned, backing up.

And then Natalie was suddenly between them, holding up her hand to ward Adrien off. A see-thru red shield appeared in front of her. Adrien stopped, blinking in surprise.

“That. Is. _Enough_,” Natalie said, glaring at him.

Adrien studied the shield. Nice. That sure would’ve been useful at least… oh, at least a half-dozen times when he’d gotten caught up in an akuma attack with her nearby. If only she’d cared to use it to _help him_….

“You really think that’s gonna hold up against a Cataclysm?” he drawled, feeling the dark energy start to build up in his arm in anticipation.

“It’ll hold,” Natalie said confidently. Something about her tone of voice made Adrien think that she’d had previous experience with that particular scenario…. Yikes. But hadn’t she been the Ladybug? He glanced behind her to Felix, who indeed looked a bit ashamed of himself.

“And I thought I had issues,” he joked at Plagg. Surprisingly, the kwami didn’t laugh or smile. Instead, he swooped closer to Adrien’s ear.

“Just remember, kid, whatever you do here, you gotta live with for the rest of your life,” he muttered softly. “Jerk-face over there is a prime example.”

“I thought you wanted me to be a badass,” Adrien said, frowning.

“A badass, yes. An asshole, no.”

Adrien scowled at his kwami for a moment, feeling the power inside him writhe in frustration. It wanted him to move, to strike out at the ones causing him pain. And a part of him wanted it too. He’d been locked up—alone and desperate—for so long… and these two were arguably the most to blame….

No. His father had had a part in that as well. And… well, he already regretted what he’d had to do there. (In the same scenario, he’d do it again in a heartbeat, but that didn’t mean he’d enjoyed it.) Plagg was right. He had to think. And he couldn’t do that here.

“I’m going out for a run,” he said, turning and heading out of the room again.

“Adrien!” Natalie called after him, suddenly sounding scared.

“That is a Bad Idea,” Felix added, also chasing him. “There are akumas all over town!”

“And it’s my job to fix them,” Adrien argued. He continued towards his bedroom.

“No, kid,” his uncle said, grabbing his arm and pulling him to a stop. Adrien felt the darkness rise up again, but this time, he carefully throttled it. After that last threat, he was pretty sure Felix wouldn’t come near him unless he had good reason. Sure enough, his uncle looked terrified. “Don’t do it. Not as the Cat. If one of them gets ahold of you, you’ll turn Paris into a crater!”

“I’ll be fine,” Adrien said, shrugging him off.

“Plagg, help me here!!” Felix cried desperately. “Tell him! Tell him about Atlantis if you have to!!”

Surprised, Adrien looked at his kwami, who winced and gave him a guilty smile. “Let’s just say there’s not really much left to find… no matter how hard they look.”

Adrien gulped, but quickly shook himself out of it. No. That wasn’t him. He wouldn’t become that.

“Look,” he said, trying to sound patient, “I know it’s dangerous. I know I’m not at my best right now. But it’s my job to contain the akumas somehow—”

“No, it’s not,” Natalie interrupted. “You were sent in to save Nooroo and stop Hawkmoth. And you’ve done that. But it’s never been the Cat’s job to manage the akumas. That’s the _Butterfly’s_ job.”

“But then why would my father say…,” Adrien trailed off as realization struck. “Oh, hell. You mean my father wanted me to become the next Butterfly?!”

* * *

Cat Noir bounded across rooftops, so completely fed up with adults that he was sick. And he no longer cared what anybody said. He wanted his Marinette. He wanted her soft, almost-startled smile. The laughter in her eyes. The warmth of her arms while she held him. He wanted to hand the Peacock Miraculous over to her and watch her face become fiercely protective when he told her how precious it really was. _She_ surely wouldn’t let anything happen to it. And he was confident she, of all people, could find a way to get his mother out of there.

Without having to terrorize a city to do it.

Frowning he stared down at the lights of Paris. Citizens were still venturing out through all of this chaos; so sure that their superheroes would save them. He and Ladybug might need to make a public statement soon—

_BAM!!_

Cat Noir yelped as something yellow shot past his face in a blur, impacting the chimney beside him instead of his head. He whirled around to face his attacker and blinked when he saw a figure dressed in a yellow jumpsuit several buildings away. _An akuma? Damn, she had good aim for that distance!_

And she was flinging her weapon in his direction again!!

He leapt off the building and onto the pavement below. Inwardly, he cursed when he realized that the street was crowded with people. He opened his mouth to warn them all to seek shelter from the akuma immediately, when…

“Everyone out of the way!!” his pursuer screamed at the crowd. People jumped to heed her as she strode towards him. Confused, Cat Noir backed away.

_Since when did akumas care about the general populace? Didn’t they usually love flaunting their power over everyone??_

“I knew you’d come back around here,” the yellow akuma snarled at him. “I knew you’d want to see her again! And I knew she was lying when she said nothing was happening between you two!!”

_Okay… so, it must be someone who knew about him and Marinette then…. But that could be anyone with all the press they’d gotten lately!!_

He backed up further, and she shrieked in anger, thinking he was trying to make another escape. She threw her weapon at him. He dodged, scampering to put a bit more distance between them. Something about her was familiar somehow… but he didn’t want to get close enough to inspect her further.

Especially when her weapon tore through the concrete right next to him.

_That could’ve been me,_ Cat thought with wild eyes_. And I don’t even know if I should fight her! Maybe these new akumas can be reasoned with?? _Damn, he could really use Ladybug right about now. She’d know what to do. For now, he decided, he’d lead this girl away from the bigger crowds and hopefully get away from her long enough to call his partner.

Of course, that was easier said than done.

She pursued him relentlessly; keeping up with him even though he knew these rooftops, these streets, like the back of his hand. There were times he was sure he’d lost her, only to have to duck just in time to have that stupid weapon of hers burrow into whatever was behind him.

_GEEZ, was that thing a top???_

Finally, he lost her. Cat Noir watched her from his hiding spot as she looked around in frustration and then grabbed her weapon in a strange way. It reminded him of when he looked at the screen on his baton…

_SHE WAS TRACKING HIM!!_ Cold fear washed over him. This was no akuma. She had a Miraculous! And unlike Hawkmoth’s, the tracking feature wasn’t turned off! (That had been one of the first things he and Ladybug had checked after they realized they could communicate with each other. But no, his father had somehow known about it as well.) He cursed in his mind again. He couldn’t turn his off; Ladybug might need to find him…. Well, there was another way to turn off the tracker. And if she really was a Miraculous holder, she wouldn’t hurt a civilian.

_Right?_

He frowned and ducked into a nearby alley.

_“Plagg, claws in!”_

Plagg quickly swooped inside his jacket as Adrien ran for the main street. If he could just get to a crowd and blend in—

“Gotcha, kitty!!” his pursuer crowed in triumph, landing in front of him. Adrien grimaced and backed up. He really didn’t have choice than to try to play innocent…. “And now, there’s nowhere for you… to…” She trailed off as Adrien accidentally moved under a light. He winced.

“Sorry, you’ve got the wrong guy,” he tried anyway. “I was just separated from my friends—!”

“ADRIKINS?? _YOU’RE_ CAT NOIR???”

Adrien froze, staring wide-eyed as his pursuer also stepped into the light and he finally got a good look at her. Not that he needed to get a good look at her. There was only one person in the world who called him that.

“CHLOE?? Wait, why are you dressed like a bee??”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember that my Natalie and Felix are NOT the same characters as are portrayed in later seasons of the show. I took their character development from Season 1 alone.


End file.
